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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



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Dr. William M. Starr. 



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IN DEFENSE 



OF 



MEDICAL BOTANY. 



THIRD EDITION 



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BY T*S<.<oVVt 



* DR. WIL IL STARR. * 



WASHINGTON, D. C. 



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Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1891, 
By Dr. WII,I,IAM M. STARR, 

In the office of the librarian of Congress, at Washington* 



PREFACE. 



The design of this work is to profit the many 
thousand persons who are suffering from diseases 
of every kind, even to the advanced or chronic 
stage. I presume that ever} r man, woman, and child 
farmer, mechanic and da}^ laborer, as well as profess- 
ional men, have a right to acquire all the knowledge it 
is in their power to grasp. This book is calculated for 
the many who are not able to obtain the important 
and essential medical knowledge that is necessarj" for 
the perpetuation of health, longevity, wealth, and hap- 
piness, b} T purchasing the regular medical text books 
of our classical colleges, as well as those who live in 
the palace and take pleasure in the barouche and phae- 
ton. It is to teach the humble and poor, the farmer 
and mechanic, the merchant and his clerk, that God, 
in his infinite wisdom, has created and grown an herb 
with medicinal properties to prove a balm to every ail- 
ment that the human organization is heir to. My ob- 
ject is also to teach the many that a large number of 
these Valuable herbs, roots, barks, leaves and flowers, 
grow within the immediate reach of those who may be 
unfortunate enough to need them to heal their ail- 
ments. Every person's physical organization is his 
own, and he has a right to understand it, and most 
especially hygiene and Nature's remedies that will 
relieve and heal all afflictions or at least a great many 
of them, or the great majority of them. It is admitted 



by all of our classical medical men, that the great 
masses of the people know too little about themselves 
and remedies that grow in their yards, gardens, and 
woodlands. It is the author's object to acquaint 
the people with an important and valuable knowl- 
edge of the medical action of a great many of 
our most- common herbs, roots, barks, flowers, and 
leaves, and he will teach how to gather them in the 
proper season, and cure them by the proper process, 
so that they may have and retain all of their original 
pure medicinal virtues, and so that they can well un- 
derstand how to make their own gatherings into safe, 
reliable, and efficient infusions, decoctions, and tinc- 
tures; their dose, and how to administer; when and 
what for. Knowledge is power, and he who seeks it 
is wise, and he who neglects it does so to his own sor- 
row and detriment. Hippocrates, who is admitted by 
• the medical profession to be the father of medicine, 
says : "All men ought to be acquainted with the 
medical art." I have written this work with the be- 
lief that the people in general are ready to receive 
such knowledge, and will be thankful for and profit, 
fey it. 

DR. WM, M. STARR.. 



SKETCH OF 

DR. WM. M. STARR'S LIFE 



Dr. Starr, whose office is at No. 709 G Street, 
northwest, is a native of Virginia, born in Prince 
William County in 1813; moving to Ohio in 1817. 
He resided there until the commencement of the 
Mexican War, in which he took an active part. In 
1849 he made his way to California, where he orga- 
nized a company to fight Indians in the Digger 
Indian outbreak, and held them in check until Gen- 
eral Smith came to his relief. From California he 
found his way to Texas, and then to Washington city 
and commenced the practice of his profession (having 
graduated in medicine at Xew Orleans), and soon 
-afterwards commenced the manufacture of medi- 
cines on new and scientific principles, having pro- 
duced many well-known preparations, such as his 
celebrated Cough Syrup, Liver Pills, Kidney Tea, 
Rheumatic Balm, Balm of Gilead Salve, Balm of 
Gilead Wash, and Chill and Fever Tea, the efficacy 
of which is attested by thousands of testimonials 
of the most reliable character. 



6 

It was a marked feature in his nature, from his 
infancy up, to be a close observer of Nature in 
reference to the vegetable kingdom. When but a 
boy he loved flowers, and wondered what kind of 
roots they had, and what they were good for ; 
which indicated a natural gift for botany and the 
herbal kingdom. Consequently he would go into 
the mountains, hills, prairies, and woodlands, and 
gather Nature's remedies and manufacture them into 
Botanical remedies. He at once observed the fact 
that the Indian doctors never injured their patients 
with their innocent remedies, and that they soon 
recovered without aching bones or a salivated 
mouth. In this way, he became strongly impressed 
with the fact that what was good for an Indian cer- 
tainly was good for a white man, and that it was a 
duty he owed to civilization to introduce or bring 
before the people the Herbal Theory. Being con- 
scientiously impressed with this fact, he at once be- 
gan to more thoroughly fit his mind with botanical 
medical knowledge, and acquaint himself with the 
roots, flowers, barks, leaves and herbs, from which 
their medicines were made. To acquire this knowl- 
edge took a long time. The object of the author is 
to give each one the opportunity of learning how to 
care for his own system, and to rectify the wrongs 
that may assail it, with harmless remedies, that will 



do good, and never harm when taken according to 

directions. 

A balm is hidden in the leaf, 

That God has given for relief, 

The Indians of the Western plains 

Have found that they will cure our pains. 

So now the author does extend 
A helping hand, an honest friend, 
He'll cure your aches, relieve your pain, 
If you will buy his Balm for Pain. 

It's made of barks, and oils, and leaves, 

And seldom ever man deceives, 

It never fails to satisfy, 

And on it, friends, you can rely. 

Unkind words, and acts, and deeds. 
To war and bloodshed often leads. 
Gigantic oaks from acorns grow, 
And wicked acts brine: weal and woe. 



Anatomy. 

Human anatomy describes the organization and 
construction of the human body, and how it is put 
together: how 7 the bones are held together by liga- 
ments, aponurotic bands and muscles. It. tells the 
shape of the bones, the number, and how they are 
made, and what they are made of. It names each 
organ, and describes the construction of each par- 
ticular department of it. It numbers the bones, the 



muscles, nerves, arteries, ligaments, veins, and all 
that is found by the dissection of the dead body. 

Every man should know enough about his own 
"body in reference as* to how it is made, and the 
functions or actions of the essential or principal 
organs, to care properly for himself, and protect 
himself or body from a great many poisons and sur- 
roundings that cause disease, pain, sorrow, suffer- 
ing and death. Knowing this to be an essential fact 
I feel that it is a duty that I owe to my fellow man, 
or humanity in general, to embody in this work a 
few important and essential anatomical ideas that 
#re useful for man, woman and child to know. 

The human skeleton is composed of 208 bones, 
-the teeth not included, and these bones are con- 
trolled by 600 muscles, and through these bones and 
muscles, nerves, arteries, veins, and capillaries are 
very numerously distributed. There are 32 teeth 
in the grown person, with which we nlasticate, or 
chew, or grind our food. These teeth are coated 
with a material called enamel, which, when once in- 
jured by improper habits, will never renew itself 
again. The teeth are not like bones. Bones, when 
broken, if held in position, will grow together again, 
solid and firna as before breaking. But not so with 
ihe teeth, which, when once injured ; are, like a 
pane of glass, destroyed forever. Xow there are 
ninety-nine out of every hundred of my readers who 



know this statement to be a fact by actual experi- 
ence. Boys destroy their teeth when quite young 
by crushing hickory-nuts, almonds, cream nuts and 
pieces of ice. Cold causes sudden contraction ; heat 
sudden expansion. The white pearly substance 
which covers that portion of the tooth which pro- 
jects above the gum, called enamel, is admitted by 
all in the profession of medicine, most especially the 
chemical and dental professions, to be extremely 
susceptible to these two extremes, namely cold and 
heat; consequently ice, ice water, ice lemonade or 
any thing or substance near the same temperature,, 
should never, during health be put in the mouthy 
which everybody knows is practiced or indulged in 
every day by hale and hearty persons ; and just so- 
soon as such substances come in contact with the 
teeth, they being about 98 J degrees of heat, the ice,, 
or whatever it may be, being about 32 degrees,, 
causes a sudden contraction of the enamel, causing 
it to contract to such a degree that it cracks the enamel^ 
and decay follows. Parents should caution their 
children about cracking nuts, and chewing ice, and 
drinking hot tea and coffee. I have known men 
who have been free from all such indiscretions dur- 
ing their life, that had their full set of teeth, thirty- 
two in number, free from all decay. The Indiana 
have no need of a dentist, from the fact they do not 
drink hot tea and coffee. The Indian doctor has- 



10 

no steel forceps to crush the gum and jaw-bone, in 
order to extract an injured tooth, from which injury 
it has decayed. Their dentist is simply the strict 
observation of the laws of nature. If a man cuts 
his finger a scar will be the final result ; if a man 
violates the law§ af nature, and causes the enamel 
of his teeth to be cracked, or cut, the result is a scar 
in the form of a tooth ache, toothless gums, or false 
teeth. The teeth are especially intended for the 
mastication of food, or in words more plain, for the 
grinding of the food in order that the fluids of the 
stomach may have free access to every portion of 
it when it enters the stomach. When a person is 
eating a common meal, the salivary glands excrete 
eight ounces of saliva, which mingles with the food 
and has a special chemical property, and one special 
mission to perform outside of a chemical action, and 
that is, to oil or lubricate the bolus of food, that it 
may pass clown the esophagus or tube that leads 
from the mouth to the stomach. The stomach is an 
organ just beneath the lower tip of the breastbone, 
and hangs in the shape of a half moon, with the 
convex surface down when not filled with food ; but 
upon being filled with a meal of food or victuals, 
it turns upside down and commences to contractor 
relax, or, in other words, churn up the food so it is 
in a soft pulpy form, and at the same time mingles 
the gastric juice with it, which chemically seperates 



11 

the dross from the nutritious portion so that it may 
be absorbed by the little lacteal s, the same as a leech 
sucks up blood. Hence you see how the many abuse 
their stomachs ignorantly, by eating and drinking 
between meals, which obstructs and prevents the 
process of digestion, and ultimately causes dyspep- 
sia. The North American Indians were never 
known to be afflicted with dyspepsia, simply from 
the fact that their habits of eating and character of 
food were in accordance with the laws of nature. 
They never drink hot coffee, tea, whisky, wine, 
beer, pound cake, or pudding; but they live on 
plain diet, and the result is they never have dys- 
pepsia, cancer of the stomach, and thousands of 
ailments that civilization is heir to and afflicted with. 
The first portion of the bowels that leads from 
the stomach is called the duodenum. About two 
inches from where it connects with the stomach the 
bile from the liver and pancreatic fluid are emptied. 
These two fluids serve the purpose of converting 
the fatty portion of the food we eat into a saponi- 
fied condition — that is, a soapy condition ; both of 
the fluids being of an alkaline nature, and coming 
in contact with fat, the same chemical process oc- 
curs as does when common lye from ashes comes in 
contact with grease or fat in the soap kettle ; and 
when the fatty portion of our food is thus saponi- 
fied, it is ready for the lacteals of the bowels to ab- 



12 

sorb or suck up. When the nutritious portion of 
our food is thus absorbed it is carried into what is 
-called the thoracic duct, which is a tube about the 
size of a crow's quill running up the spinal column. 
"This tube is the medium through which our bodies 
receive our entire physical support.. The nutrition 
^which is absorbed by the lacteals and carried into 
^this tube is called chyle ; before it leaves the stomach 
it is called chyme. When it enters the thoracic 
duct, it is carried by it into the left subclavian vein, 
where it becomes blood, and is carried by the cir- 
culation to all the tissues of the body, to strength- 
en, support, and renew them. 

The second section of the bowels, or that part 
which follows the duodenum, or the first section of 
.the -small bowels, is called the jejunum. The third 
.•section, following the jejunum, is the illium. At 
the end of this section there is what is called the 
ulleocoecal valve, or the entrance from the small 
bowel into the large one, which is called the as- 
cending colon. This section runs upon the right 
side of the abdomen until it comes to the ribs and 
.liver, and then turns squarely to the opposite side, 
running just beneath the stomach and spleen. This 
is called, in anatomy, the transverse colon. After 
.reaching the left side it turns squarely down the 
left side. This section is called the descending 
•colon. After it reaches. the margin of the hips, or 



13 

in medical terms, the crest of the illium, it becomes 
pouched like a Scottish bagpipe, which is called the 
sigmoid flexure. Following this is what is called 
the rectum, the last portion, and the outlet of the- 
alimentary canal. At the outlet, which is called': 
the anus, there are muscles called sphincter or cir- 
cular muscles, which serve as a gate to the bowels,. 
and when the rectum becomes loaded with the 
drossy portion of that which we eat, or food, there 
is a pressure produced against these muscles, and 
a nerve sensation produced, which apprizes the in- 
dividual of the fact that nature calls him to stool. 
Xow the mouth, stomach, throat, and entire tract 
of the bowels, are lined with what is called a mu- 
cous membrane, and this membrane is netted with 
millions of little veins and capillaries. The veins 
in the lower portion of the rectum are called hem- 
orrhoidal veins. Now when a great many persons 
become constipated or costive, the circulation of the 
blood is checked or obstructed, and then these 
hemorrhoidal veins become full and engorged with 
blood, and pouch out the mucous membrane in 
lumps or rolls, and they become inflamed and pain- 
ful. This condition of the rectum is what is called 
piles. The Indian method for the cure of piles is 
a certainty, if the party so afflicted conforms to the 
directions. 

The human body has three sets of nerves in it, 






14 , / 

sensory, motor, and sympathetic. The sensory 
nerves are those nerves that feel all pain and carry 
it to the brain and nerve centres for recognition. 
The motor nerves are nerves by which we control 
and move our muscles. The sympathetic nerves 
are nerves that govern nutrition. Our brain is 
locked up in a bony box of eight bones. It has 
two sections, the cerebrum, which means the large 
brain, and the cerebellum, which means the small 
brain. These lay in folds called convolutions. It 
is the dwelling place of intellect and the throne of 
life. The human body is covered with an integu- 
ment called skin. It is composed of four layers, 
and has seven millions pores, which, if they were 
stretched out in one line, would measure twenty- 
eight miles in length, and there is more deleterious 
matter and poison eliminated or thrown off from the 
body by the skin than any other eliminator known 
in the human organization. The skin has two sets 
of glands, namely, sudoriferous and sebaceous. The 
sudoriferous glands are what are called the sweat 
glands ; the sebaceous are glands that excrete an 
oily substance, to keep the skin soft, silky, and plia- 
ble. Any person can readily ascertain this fact by 
squeezing the nose, when they will see a white, oily 
substance come from the pores. We have hair on 
our heads to protect the scalp and brain ; we have 
eve-brows to act aseave troughs to lead the sweat 



15 

from the eves. We are told by Divine history that 
"man shall earn his bread by the sweat of his brow." 
The eye-brows do not sweat, but simply lead the 
sweat of the forehead from the eyes. We have 
eye-winkers, which are sentinels standing on guard 
to protect the eye from any foreign substance or 
material that may come in contact with the eyes 
and injure them. For instance, when a bee flies 
against the eye to sting you, he first strikes the 
winkers, and your eye-lids shut, and the delicate eye- 
ball is sheltered from danger. We have hair on 
other parts of our body, for the purpose of keeping 
the sweat that comes from the sudoriferous glands 
from scalding or chafing the skin. We have two 
eyes to see; two ears to hear; two nostrils to breathe; 
a mouth to taste; a nose to smell; and a body and 
lingers to feel with; through \yhich organs we have 
the live grand senses transmitted to the brain, 
through which we recognize all of God's blessings: 
seeing, feeling, hearing, smelling, and tasting. AVe 
have two sets of muscles — voluntary and involun- 
tary. The voluntary muscles are those that are 
controlled by the will ; the involuntary are those 
that are governed by the fixed chemical laws of 
animal creation, free from the will, and cannot pos- 
sibly be controlled by it. We are fearfully and won- 
derfully made. We are a greater mystery to our- 
selves than all of our surroundings. No one can 



16 

tell why a man's vital force begins to fail at the age 
of forty-five or fifty ; but every organ that consti- 
tutes his body fades, in the healthy man, at the 
above-named age, in sweet harmony, and he has 
reached the summit of life, and taken the swift 
wings that carry man to the bosom of his Father 
and his God. 

With these few anatomical remarks, my kind 
readers, I will say that my object has been to give 
you a profitable glimpse of the temporal body we 
own and dwell in that you may profit by it and be 
partially enabled to know thft man has the finest 
machinery in his body to care, for that our Allwise 
God ever created in the animal kingdom of the 
earth. 



Physiology and Hygiene. 



Physiology treats of the functions or actions, or in 
other words, the work the healthy organs of our 
bodies perform. In these remarks I can give you 
a few of the most essential facts, warranting you, if 
you remember them, that you may profit by them and 
lengthen the number of your years of life. We 
will first consider the process of digestion. When 
we take food in our mouth and commence to chew 



!7 
it, we find that there is a slippery fluid thrtiwn 
out into the mouth. This is intended by nature to 
accomplish a very important purpose : first, to 
moisten the food, so that when it is ground up into 
a bolus or ball, it may be slippery and moist, that 
it w T ill readily pass down the stomach tube to the 
stomach when swallowed, and be in a fit condition 
for the gastric juice to enter and dissolve. Second- 
ly, it has a chemical property that unites with the 
starchy portion of the food, and converts it into glu- 
cose or sugar. After the food enters the stomach, 
the gastric follicle of the stomach throws out a fluid 
as sour as the juice of a lemon, called gastric juice, 
which is caused to mingle with the food and satur- 
ate it, and dissolve it ready to be absorbed and as- 
similated. The greater portion of the albuminous 
part of the food is taken up by the stomach, and 
that which remains is carried with the fatty portion 
of the food through the pyloric orifice, or valve of 
the lower portion or end of the stomach, into the 
bowels, where it is taken up by the lacteals of the 
bowels, and carried to perform its mission. The 
bowels have what is called a peristaltic or vermicu- 
lar action, which means, in common language, a 
worm-like or squirming motion, which worms the 
food-through the bowels. When there is a cathartic 
medicine taken into the system, it irritates and 
stimulates this action, and the result is frequent 



18 

actions on the bowels. Then, after the stimulation 
find irritation subsides, the vermicular action falls- 
as far behind the normal or natural standard as it 
was stimulated above it, and the usual result is, 
constipation or costiveness follows for a few days, 
till nature can regain herself again. We have an 
organ called the heart, which has four chambers or 
apartments, consisting of two apartments called 
auricles and ventricles, situated it the left breast, in 
a sack called pericardium. The two auricles are 
called right and left, and the ventricles are called 
the same. The muscular power of the left ventricle 
is greater than that of the right, from the fact it 
has to throw the blood farther. With the heart is> 
connected two main arteries; aortic and pulmonary 
The auricles are to receive the blood, and the ven- 
tricles to throw it out to all parts of the body. The 
heart, in a healthy person, pulsates seventy times 
per minute. The blood is thrown from the left 
ventricle into the aortic artery, which has branches 
that lead to all parts of the system. After it 
reaches the end of the arteries, it enters a system of 
vessels called capillaries, which means hair-like, and 
carries the blood through the tissues of the body, 
and empties it into the veins, which carries it back to 
the right auricle, and from there it goes to the right 
ventricle, which throws it to the lungs, through the 
pulmonic artery, where it receives oxygen from the 



19 

air we inhale or breathe into our lungs, which con- 
verts the blood from a dark venous character to 
that of a bright arterial character. From there it 
enters the pulmonic veins, and is carried to the left 
auricle, and from there to the left ventricle, from 
whence it is propelled in the same course as I have 
just described. The lungs are two organs situated 
in the thorax or breast. They have a tube that 
leads to them, and forks into two branches, and 
these two branches, and all the little ones into 
which they subdivide, in combination are called the 
bronchial tubes, and the little cavities to which 
these little branches lead are called air cells, and 
the walls of these air cells are called peranchymic 
Avails, and these delicate walls are filled with nu- 
merous minute, little, hair-like capillary vessels, 
which receive oxygen from the air, and in return 
give off carbonic acid gas. Man has two kidneys 
that lay in the small of the back, which are filters 
of the blood, with this peculiar characteristic — 
they throw off the poison urine, and leave the blood 
purer than they found it, while the artificial filter 
lets the pure fluid go through, and retains the dross 
or the part unfit for use. There is a tube to each 
kidney about the size of a crow's quill, that leads 
the urine to an organ of an oval form like unto a 
cistern, to receive the urine, and when filled, warns 
the owner that he must evacuate it. The brain is 



20 

an organ through which we think and exert ner- 
vous forces that control the voluntary muscles of 
the body. The liver is an organ that excretes about 
fourteen ounces of bile every twenty-four hours, of 
an alkaline nature, to emulcify or saponify the fatty 
portion of our food. In the common adult it weighs 
about four pounds and a half, and is one of the 
most important glands of the human body. The 
spleen is an organ lying in the left side, in connec- 
tion with the stomach. Its functions or duty is not 
thoroughly understood by the ablest physiologists *. 
The common name is melt. The' pancreas lies just 
under the stomach, and excretes a fluid called pan- 
creatic fluid, that is similar in character to the bile, 
and joins hands with it in the process of digestion. 
This organ, in swine, is commonly called the sweet- 
bread. The voluntary muscles of the body are the 
muscles that are under the control of the will, with? 
which we move, act, walk and talk, and put our 
ideas into effect. The involuntary muscles are con- 
trolled by chemical forces. Man breathes, and his 
heart beats when asleep as well as when awake. 
The voluntary muscles are organs of perpetual mo- 
tion, running day and night all the time until they 
wear out. The two hundred bones constitute the 
skeleton or framework of the body, and hold it erect^, 
and serve as levers for the muscles and will power- 
to work with. There are twelve pairs of nerves 



sent off from the brain, and thirty-one pairs from 
the spinal cord, which are distributed to every part 
of the body. The brain is the temple of thought, 

the throne of intellect, — the telegraphic office, — and 
the nerves are the wires on which we send dispatch- 
es to all parts of our anatomical and physiological 
government. 

The sympathetic nervous system, or sympathetic 
nerves, link the body together in harmonious ac- 
tion. It guards one part of the system from acting 
detrimentally against another. It is the principal 
influence in controlling the circulation, nutrition., 
digestion, and assimulation. All involuntarv or- 
gans are governed by this system of nerves, so that 
when the brain is asleep the work that is vitally* 
essential to our existence will go on correctly. 

Hygiene is a body of facts or principles that are 
essential to the preservation of our bodies, health 
and happiness. I shall abridge my sentences in 
speaking of this subject. In the first place a man 
should be regular in his habits : that is, have regu- 
lar hours for sleep ; regular hours for meals, three 
meals per day when laboring, six hours apart, and 
should never retire to rest until two hours after 
supper. Should not drink anything while eating, 
so that the saliva,- Nature's fluid, may mingle prop- 
erly with the food, that it may be digested readily 
and properly. Persons should chew their food so 



32 

fine before swallowing that they can feel no lumps 
in it with the tongue, in-order that the gastric-juice 
may readily penetrate and digest it. 

The room or place a person sleeps in should be 
well ventilated, so that the air is pure and refresh- 
ing, which gives life and activity to the entire body; 
&nd he should bathe twice per week, in order that 
the skin may be kept pure and clean, that it may 
not reabsorb the poisons that are thrown out from 
the pores. The water should only be a few degrees 
above the temperature of the body. The body 
should be well rubbed after bathing with a rough 
towel till the skin is glowing. This calls the blood 
to the surface and promotes a healthy circulation, 
and makes a person feel better every way. The 
clothiug should be changed once every week, be- 
cause they become saturated with the fumes and 
odors of the body, which, if reabsorbed, are poison- 
ous to the general system. Cleanliness is next to 
godliness, and beyond question or doubt, is the key 
note of man's health. Every one, when eating, 
should stop before they realize the sensation that 
they have got enough. Franklin says : "If you 
would have an appetite stop with one/' and it is 
true. Knick knacks, if eaten at all, should be eaten 
before substantial food, because when they are left 
till the last, you have already eaten all the neces- 
sary food that you need, and then come dainties 



23 

that tickle the appetite and cause you to eat more 
than is demanded by nature: and the result is indi- 
gestion or dyspepsia. Everybody needs exercise is 
order that they may have proper development 
the bodies they own. No one should work in \ 
room where it is dark, for darkness is a sedative, 
and light is a stimulant, to the animal organization 
as well as the vegetable. Take a man and let him 
work.in a dark cellar, and the result is he soon be- 
comes pale and poor in flesh. Take a plant and 
set it in the shade, and it becomes a pale green, slim 7 
tall, and spindling ; hence my readers, you see the 
importance of good light In concluding my re- 
marks on hygiene, I will say that it is strictly im- 
portant, in order that we may have good health, 
we should have good light, good air, good food, 
good water, sufficient clothing, strict cleanliness, 
and discretion and temperancj in all things. All 
persons observing these rules will seldom be obliged 
to call the physician to administer unto him in a 
case of sickness, unless of a contagious character. 



Digestion. 



Digestion is one of the most important features 
or functions that is performed in our physical or— 



24 

ganization, from the tact that we receive our sup- 
port from it, and by it our bodies are entirely re- 
newed every four months. The weight of the body 
that we now own in four months will be entirely 
new in every particular. The old theory was, that 
the body renewed itself every seven years, but that 
idea is now exploded. If you will mark the finger 
nail at the root, or where it comes in contact with 
the skin or flesh, with a file or piece of caustic, you 
will find, at the end of four months, that the mark 
will have grown clear out to the end of the nail, 
which proves the nail has grown entirely new; and 
S) it is with the entire body. Knowing this to be 
a fact, we realize the importance of having a knowl- 
edge of digestion; how long it takes every article 
of food to digest that we have in e very-lay life and 
during life, for good digestion makes good blood, 
good blood a good body, and without a good body 
no man can be happy, for the healthy body is the 
machinery in which we accomplish success and hap- 
piness in life. So, in order to teach my kind read- 
ers some facts on digestion ; I will give a list of 
facts that were actually observed in the human 
stomach by the naked eye of scientific medical men. 
This fact, I have the pleasure of stating to my read- 
ers, I obtained from a statement of Dr. I J. War- 
ren, of Boston, Massachusetts. I shall simply give 
.the substance in brief, and the table of digestion. 



25 

It appears that the medical profession and human- 
ity in general were providentially presented with this 
occurence that they might know the true history of 
their stomachs, in reference to the time it takes to 
digest the various articles of food we eat in our life 
time. The following table will profit all those who 
read it and regard the truths or facts it teaches. 
The way these facts were discovered areas follows : 
A man by the name of St. Martin accidentally got 
the walls of his abdomen and stomach blown away 
by the explosion of a gun. They refused to heal, 
but a delicate membranous film grew down and pro- 
tected the food from falling out of the stomach, yet 
it was transparent like a window pane, so that the 
process of digestion could be clearly seen with the 
naked eye, and the time it took each article of food 
to digest was taken note of by me. I will give 
the table from my own observation : 

Rice boiled 1 h. 00 min. 

Kig's Feet, soused boiled 1 00 

Tripe, soused boiled 1 00 

Trout Salmon, or Salmon fresh. boiled 1 30 

Trout SaJmoii. or Salmon fresh. fried 1 00 

Apples, sweet and mellow raw 1 35 

Venison steak broiled 2 00 

Sago boiled 2 00 

Apple-, sour and mellow raw 2 00 

Cabbage, with vinegar raw .4 00 

Codfish, cured dry boiled 2 00 

Eggs, fresh raw 2 00 



26 



Beef Liver, fresh broiled 2 00 

Milk boiled 2 15 

Turkey, wild boiled . .2 30 

Turkey, domesticated ..- raw 2 25 

Potatoes, Irish baked.. 2 30 

Parsnips boiled .2 30 

Pig, sucking roasted 2 SO 

Meat Hash, with vegetables warm 1 30 

Lamb, fresh ..broiled ....2 30 

Goose roasted.. ...2 30 

Cake, sponge baked 2 30 

Cabbage, raw.. raw 2 45 

Beans, pod boiled 2 50 

Custard baked 2 h7> 

Chicken, full grown fticaseecd 3 00 

Apples, sour and hard raw 3 00 

Oyster?, fresh raw 4 00 

Bass, striped, fresh . broiled 3 00 

Beef, fresh, lean and rare boiled 3 0) 

Steak broiled 3 00 

Corn Cake baked 3 CO 

Dumplings, Apple boiled .... .3 00 

Eggs boiled soft. 3 00 

Mutton, fresh broiled 3 00 

Pork, recently salted... raw ....... .3 15 

Pork Steak broiled 3 15 

Corn Bread baked 3 20 

Mutton, fresh roasted 3 20 

Carrots, orange boiled. 3 30 

Sausage, fresh broiled....:. 3 30 

Beef, fre-h, lean, and dry roasted 3 30 

Bread, wheat, fresh baked 3 30 

Butter melted 3 30 

Cheese, old and strong raw 3 30 

Eggs, fresh boiled hard3 30 

Flounder, fresh fried 3 30 



27 

Oysters, fresh fried 3 30 

Potatoes, Irish stewed 3 30 

Soup, mutton boiled 3 30 

Oysters boiled 3 30 

Turnips, flat boiled ,.3 45 

Beets boiled 3 45 

Corn and Green Beans boiled 4 00 

Beef, fresh and lean boiled 4 00 

Fowls, domestic boiled 4 00 

Veal, fresh broiled 4 00 

Soup, Beef, Vegetables, Bread.. .boiled 4 00 

Salmon, salted boiled 4 00 

Heart, animal fried 4 00 

Beef, old, hard, and salted boiled 4 15 

Pork, recently salted fried 4 15 

Cabbage, with vinegar boiled 4 30 

Ducks, wild roasted 4 30 

Pork, recently salted boiled 4 30 

Suet, Mutton boiled 4 30 

Veal, fresh fried 4 30 

Pork, fat and lean roasted 5 15 

Suet, Beef, fresh boiled 5 30 

Tendon boiled 5 30 

This table of the time it takes to digest the dif- 
ferent articles of food will hold good in the great 
majority of cases. Food will digest quicker if a 
person keeps still after meals an hour or so; than it 
will in one who commences work immediately after 
meals. This fact was discovered by one of the great 
physiologists of Europe by taking two healthy dogs 
and feeding them both at the same time on the same 
kind of food. Shutting one up, and taking the 



28 

other hunting, at the end of an hour he killed both r 
and took out their stomachs and examined their 
contents. In the one that was shut up the food had 
nicely digested, and in the one that went hunting 
the food was the same as when swallowed. Every 
one should rest at least one hour after 'each meal,, 
and should never eat between them. Hygiene is 
the best doctor. If a man will bathe regularly, eat 
regularly, and sleep regularly, and be regular in all 
of his habits, he will seldom ever need a doctor to 
dose him with pills, potions and lotions. There is 
a penalty that will follow the violation of each law 
of nature, just as sure as fire will burn if you stick 
your finger in it. 



Diseases. 



There are as many diseases as there are organs 
in our body, and I am of the firm belief that there 
is a remedy for every disease if it were only known, 
and I believe the only method that will bring these 
remedies into practice, is liberty and freedom of 
thought on the part of the various departments or 
schools of the medical profession, and the privilege 
of all to let the people try them. The allopaths 
have a code of ethics that restricts them from eoun- 



20 

selihg with any doctor, unless he is a regular, and 
of his own faith. Such a code only casts a shadow 
of bigotry and discredit on themselves. A wise 
man will glean knowledge from whatever source it 
may come ; a fool will say all are quacks but those 
that believe as he does. Incorporated professions 
may stand for a while, but when people become edu- 
cated to that degree that they reason from cause to 
effect, and think. for themselves, they will have to 
hoist the flag of liberty on the mast-head of their 
old ship called Code of Ethics, and extend the hand 
of friendship to all, and own that there are other 
men that know as well as themselves. 



Why Medicines are better in a 
Powdered Form. 



I extend to the public my medicines in a pow- 
dered form, and I will give you my reasons for so 
doing. I make my medicines from the fresh inner 
barks of trees, shrubs, roots, leaves, and flowers, of 
my own gathering, consequently I know they are 
pure, and have all their medical properties. I never 
use my medicines after they arrive at certain ages 
.from the time of gathering, from the fact that there 



30 

is a time when everything begins to lose its strength 
and force. Every farmer well knows the fact that 
hay and corn will finally by age get stale and unfit 
for use, and the horses refuse to eat it. He knows 
that turnips, and potatoes, and vegetables in gen- 
eral, after they have been gathered a certain length 
of time, begin to wither and shrink, and are no 
longer fit to be used. These are facts that are well 
known to everybody. The same facts are true in 
reference to medicine. Medicine will lose its 
strength and become worthless after it arrives at a 
certain age, and is no longer fit for use. This I 
know is true. I have samples of old medicines in 
my office, and they have so far lost their strength 
that you cannot tell, by their odor or smell, what 
they "are. Your drug stores have medicines upon 
their shelves that have been there ten and fifteen 
years. It is not reasonable to suppose that they, 
are as good as medicines from the fresh, green 
herb, bark, root or flower. I have been botanizing 
in the several States of the Union for the last fiftv 
years, gathering my own material, and having them, 
or making them myself, into medicines of various 
forms : fluid extracts, tinctures, infusions, decoc- 
tions, and pills; but I have learned in my career 
with medicine that the majority of medicines in the 
form of fluid extracts and tinctures that are on the 
market are adulterated, and are not what they are 



31 

' represented to be. I do not ask you to examine 
them yourselves, for it would be folly in me to do 
so, from the fact that you never made medicine a 
study, consequently you do not know a good medi- 
cine from a bad one. Neither do I ask you to take 
my word alone ; but I will refer you to a statement 
that is reliable, and ean be called a positive fact. 
This statement, will be found on page 347 in the 
American Pharmacist Journal, published in New 
York, September 23, 1882. I will simply give 
the substance of the statement, written by Chas. B. 
Allaire. He says there are two principal sources 
from which we get all our medicines, namely ; drug 
millers, who buy their crude material as cheap as 
possible and powder it, and sell it to large buyers, — 
these are designated merchant millers ; and custom 
millers, that is, mills that any one can send their 
own goods and gatherings to, and get them ground 
and returned. Prosably nine-tenths of all goods 
put upon the market in this country come from 
these two sources. The usual mode on shipping 
these goods is in twenty-five and fifty pound pack- 
ages, or in barrels, according to the demands of the 
purchaser, who, if he sells them again, sells them 
in, or ships them in, paper packages, and here is 
where their identity is for ever lost. The retail 
dealer who thus receives them, knows nothing of 
their history, or who is responsible for their lackol 



32 

quality, or entitled to. credit if found reliable. I 
am glad to be able to state that there are several 
custom mills in the large cities where drugs may be 
sent for powdering, with the certainty that they will 
be returned to the sender in a state of absolute pur- 
ity ; and from this source our most careful jobbers 
supply themselves, sending prime good£, and receiv- 
ing pure, prime quality powders in return. A cheap 
article of drags that are important, is seldom genu- 
ine. The present large per centage of inferior and 
adulterated drugs in the market is the result of a 
widespread demand for cheap goods or drugs, or 
rather low prices. The per centage of goods in the 
market of an inferior character, is clearly shown by 
the fact that four hundred and sixteen samples, 
taken from various sources and examined during 
the past year, gave the following results : 227, or 
about 57 per cent., were pure, or at least no adul- 
teration was detected, and 189, or about 46 per 
cent., were adulterated so that detection was easy. 
From this fact I have resolved to institute a new 
theory, in order to know that the medicines I han- 
dle are pure and unadulterated. It is this : I bot- 
anize and gather my own material, and see it ground 
myself, and see that no one handles it but my trust- 
worthy assistants and myself, and by so doing I 
know 7 that my medicines are pure. So I am proud 
to say to my fellow suffering man, that I extend to 



33 

you a pure medicine in a powdered formj made 
from the inner barks of various vegetable growths, 
knowing it to be a convenient form; and cheaper 
than the fluid extracts or tinctures that are on our 
markets. And knowing that the preparation has 
never been from under my care to get adulterated, 
I can most positively and conscientiously offer it to 
you as a new form of medicines, that of being pure, 
in a powdered form, made from inner barks, con- 
venient to take, the price of which is within the 
reach of the poor and all suffering humanity. 

Medicine. 



'Medicine, in its common acceptation in the minds 
of the people, is a substance that cures diseases, 
but the truth of the matter is, medicine never cured 
anything. It is the natural tendency of a majority 
of diseases to get well within themselves, free from 
medical aid. Medicine, properly administered, 
simply assists nature to remove the cause that ob- 
structs her acting m a normal condition. Medicine 
is not a humbug. The humbug is in its improper 
administration. When medicine is properly ad- 
ministered it comes to the sufferer as a gift from 
God. Medicine is unjustly j udged. It is not med- 
icine that is at fault, but it is those who give it 
without the proper knowledge of its effects, and 



34 

when it is indicated. Medicine, when it is not 
properly given, proves an actual poison to the sys- 
tem. Botanic Materia Medica treats of herbs and 
vegetation in general. That is, that part of vege- 
tation which is known by me to have medicinal 
properties. They will never injure the system 
when conformed to according to directions given. 

Ail Indian Poem. 



We first came to this glorious land 
A free and happy little band.; 
Tradition says we crossed the strait 
That joins two oceans large and great. 

This link is called the Behring Strait 
By Anglo-Saxon, wise and great, 
Modern history truly shows 
By temperature we almost froze. 

Upou this land we lived and homed. 
And o'er the hills and plains w r e roamed, 
Infidels were never known 
In our little band we loved and owned. 

You bowed the knee, — and so did we, — 
And worshiped God, the triune three ; 
You said God, and we came so near it, 
Instead of God we said Great Spirit. 

We loved our wives and firesides, too, 
And worshiped God as well as you, 
Our tribe it never run saloons 
Called whisk}^ shops and gambling rooms. 

Fire-water maddens nerve and brain. 
And causes bitter woe and pain, 
We Red Men cannot understand 
Why you brought it to our land. 



35 



God sheltered us with leaf and tree. 

We were so happy and so free 
Before, the white man crossed the sea 
And stole our lands and liberty. 

They preached us Christ, Him crucified. 
And then their docirine they denied, 
By robbing, stealing, far and wide, 
Parting families, groom and bride. 

You gave us tire-water bad. 
And set our warrior- raving mad, 
We found that you were not so true 
As what we first did think of you. 

We know that you did play a lie : 
AVe thought to fight till we would die ; 
Your favor then we chose to gain 
By selling you the Balm for Pain. 

It cures your aches, it cures your pains, 
And everywhere an honor gains, 
It surely cures, both near and fear, 
When made and sold by Dr. Starr. 



In Defence of Botany. 



To the People and the Medical World. 



Science in "Medical Botany, the great medical 
desideratum of the world, has at last been discov- 
ered by Dr. Wm. M. Starr, after fifty long years of 
study and practice and at an expense of over thirty 
thousand dollars. He has analyzed nearly every 
herb in the Vegetable Kingdom, and ill forty -two 



36 

of the leading herbs he has discovered enough 
medical substance to make medicines to cure every 
disease in human life, and every medicine is sep- 
arate and distinct for every different disease. No 
two are alike as no two diseases are alike. He 
compounds over sixty different* medicines from 
forty-two leading herbs, which will, if used correctly, 
cure any disease of the human Family. He be- 
lieves that he understands each and every disease 
-of the human frame and he has a cure for each and 
every disease in the human body. 

He will teach all who may wish to learn the use 
of his valuable remedies in Medical Botany for any 
disease of the man, woman or child. He will teach 
what herbs to gather, what time in the year to se- 
cure them and manufacture the medicine, and the 
proportion of the different herbs to make separate 
and distinct medicines for each and every separate 
disease in human afflictions. 

He has as many different medicines as there are 
diseases in human life; all in botany. It took 
him fifty long years, and cost over thirty thousand 
dollars in cash to find out these valuable medi- 
cines. Ever since he perfected these remedies and 
found out their use in every case whatsoever he 
has had no cause to change his medicines in any 
way from their original use in any disease, and can 
cure many old chronic cases of all kinds even where 



37 

the patient has been poisoned from the use of other 
medicines. 

He has a positive cure among his list of medi- 
cines for any disease of mankind, if it is not chronic 
and past curing; he cures many of these old cases. 
When he says sure cure or positive cure he means 
that the patient shall use his medicines and no 
other until he says stop or until the patient is 
cured. They must remain strictly under his medi- 
cines and under his rules first, last and all the 
time. 

He will teach the whole Botanical Profession 
from the raw herbs to this science for the sum of 
five hundred dollars ($500). 

Every student must stay one year so as to take 
in one summer to learn what herbs to gather and at 
what time to gather them, so it will take at least 
that time. He can make any shrewd or smart per- 
son a perfect Botanical Doctor in one year, just 
what it took him fifty years to find out. It is a 
perfect work and all young men and women should 
take this into consideration and give him a call or a 
bid. 

During the year 1890 he had nine hundred cases 
of La Grippe and lost none. The same year he had 
eight cases of scarlet fever, twenty-one cases of 
diphtheria, five cases of typhoid fever, thirty-one 
cases of bilious fever, twelve cases of St. Vitus 



38 

Dance, sixty-one cases of kidney disease, forty-three 
cases cholera infantum, twenty-two cases chills and 
fever and lost none. Daring the months ef Janu- 
ary, February, March, and April he had 307 cases 
of La Grippe and lost none. He also had many 
other diseases and lost none. No man on earth 
can beat these Botanical cures. They might as 
well do away with wheat, rye, corn, oats, barley } 
rice, beans, potatoes, buckwheat, meats, fruits, milk 
and sugars which are the necessaries of life and 
make flesh and blood. The human body is purely 
a vegetable body composed of purely vegetable 
matter. So he uses purely vegetable medicines for 
purely vegetable bodies. Botanical Doctors are 
the free thinkers of medicine, with the right to 
choose the best form of all the best Botanic theories 
of medicine. Liberty uncircumscribed by the 
teachings of fanatics. Freedom to judge for them- 
selves that which is best of all that you can learn 
of the many ideas of medical men of the world. 

Love to all, hatred toward none. Freedom of 
thought. The right to counsel with all. Un- 
governeci by any mean disgraceful conduct, esthics, 
or force bills. Give us liberty to exercise good 
common sense, and use that which is best to do 
good in the case for which it is intended. This is 
the true principle of Botanical practice. They are 
the most successful doctors on the face of the earth 



3<j 

who believe in personal liberty as well as general 

liberty and that which is right, is right and best for 

11 G>ccfc\ 

Every 4M^ on earth ought to be careful what he 
gives to his patients, so as not to make any mis- 
take at all or give any medicines that could harm 
any person, even if it could do no good. If he 
don't know what is the matter with the patient he 
has no business to give any medicine; and it should 
be made a law that no man should be allowed to 
experiment on any person in any case. He should 
know what is wrong and what to give and what to 
do, or quit and give it up. 

I hold that no doctor has any right to give medi- 
cines to kill or cure under any circumstances what- 
soever ; because if he don't know what to give first 
he is less fit to give the last remedy, as they call it. 
If he knew what to give, his patient would not 
come to this last remedy point. It ought not to be 
allowed at all. They have no moral right to give 
medicines to any person at guess-work or random. 

Suppose you had a new sewing machine all in 
good order and it became a little out of order and 
you should send for a machinist to repair it, and he 
would come every day and work on it and your 
machine kept getting worse and worse for weeks 
and weeks and the tinker charging you pay for 
every day; and at last your machine was entirely 



40 

destroyed. What would you say of such a machan- 
ic? Would you not say he was a fraud? You 
would be right in calling him a fraud and wholly 
unfit to undertake such a job. But suppose your 
•child was to get a little out of health and you were 
to call a workman in the medicine business and he 
was to make equally as bad a job, w T hat would you 
say of him? Would you not say that they were 
both frauds alike ? You could not say anything 
else. If he should tell you that your machine had 
just turned into something else since he began to 
work at it, and that you can look out for the worst, 
after two or three weeks working on it ; what 
would you say then 9 

Henry Ward Beecher said there was no reason 
why any person who is once healthy should not 
live to be a hundred years old. 

Botanical Doctor Wm. M. Starr says that if all 
doctors were what they ought to be or what their 
friends take them to be ; no children who were 
once in good health would die under a good old age, 
from 80 to 100 years or more. 

He further says that no young person once in good 
health would die, without a gross violation of the 
laws of nature, either by those who have them in 
charge or of themselves. The body best taken 
care of will last the longest, the same as with a 
machine or anything else. 



41 

The people can do without any monoply in doc- 
tors or hi any other business. To pass a law to 
give any class of men the exclusive right to 
practice medicine means human speculation and 
murder. It means to destroy, to kill, without any 
regard to law. It means human destruction, to pass 
a law to grant to any one school of medicine the 
whole right to practice exclusively. 

Force bills passed into laws by the States, to 
stop all doctors from making any medicines or to 
practice, except the graduates of certain schools 
which commend the use of poisons is an outrage 
on humanity. A law to give the whole practice to 
any one class is an abomination. Look at Pitts- 
burg, Pa. in March, 1891 ; fifty per cent of all La 
Grippe cases died. Look at Chicago the same 
month; nine hundred in one week. Look at New 
York City ; still worse. 

That those who make any improvement in medi- 
cines, or that men who have positive cures, shall be 
driven out of practice, because they do not believe in 
using poison as a medicine, or because they believe 
entirely in the Botanical remedies, home-made on 
scientific principals, is a violation of human liberty 
and human rights and human safety, and destroys the 
very principles of invention and prosperity. The 
people can do without Force Bills but they can't do 
without the farmers. They are the producers and 



42 

feed us all. The farmers are the noblest men on 
earth. Were I to select a board of the greatest 
men on earth I would go to the largest farmers to 
choose them, because they are the best. And 
were I to select doctors I would choose them of 
those who made their own medicines from the raw 
herbs, fresh from the farms and wdods. I have 
analyzed wheat, rye, corn, oats, barley, beans, po- 
tatoes, rice, meats, and milk, and then the human 
body, which are all composed of purely vegetable 
matter. You cannot live without vegetables. This 
fact being true, then who is right? The doctors 
who gather their medical cures from the vegetable 
kingdom for a vegetable body, or the doctors who 
use mineral medicines for a vegetable body ? Ap- 
ply common sense and you have the answer. You 
mast have vegetables to live on and Botanical cures 
are right. If the human body can't live without 
mineral food then the mineral doctors are right.. 
The idea that the human body must be treated 
with minerals and other poisons for any of its dis- 
eases is an impossibility, mere speculation. 

It is an historical and important fact, that in the 
Gulf Cities south in Yellow Fever seasons, all the 
people become alarmed, doctors and all. Why is 
all this ? It is because the doctors have no cure 
for it, and have no confidence in themselves, in fact 
the doctors die the same as the common people, so- 



43 

•all hopes for cure are lost and all have to await for 
the frost. This is positive proof that in a hundred 
years experiments these doctors know less what to 
do with Yellow Fever than they did an hundred ' 
years ago. In fact they don't know anything about 
it at all, only to run from it and quarantine against 
and trust to Providence for an early frost. Yet 
they say we have no right to make any improve- 
ment in medicines or to practise medicine, even if 
we have sure cures. . They pretend that they know 
it all and are the only doctors that do know it all. 

It was still a little worse in the city of Washington 
D. C, during the first four months in the year 
1891, there were more deaths from La Grippe than 
•ever died in New Orleans in any four months in 
history, from any disease. Why was this ? La 
Grippe is an easy disease to cure. In Pittsburg, 
Pa., it was still worse. In Chicago it was worse 
than Yellow Fever ever was in Xew Orleans. 
What is the matter ? These diseases are cureable. 
Is there no Balm of Gilead or is there no man to 
gather it. I say there is a positive cure and a pos- 
itive preventative in the vegetable kingdom. Bo- 
tanical medicines are the only positive and safe cures 
on earth. 

A little improvement in medicine would harm no 
one. All doctors can have the benefit of my Botan- 
ical medicines, and their patients as well, if they 



44 

choose to do so. Then why object to have any im- 
provement in medicines ? Is it possible that the 
present medical profession now in charge have come 
to a halt in science and invention and to a point 
where there is no sure cure for any disease ? It 
looks very much as if it had come to this point 
when there are from 160 to 200 deaths per week 
2 n "Washington, D. C. Now the people are looking^ 
or relief from a change of weather, &c. If the 
death rates over those of births were to continue a& 
they did during the months of February, March, 
April, and May, 1891, it would take only twenty 
years to exterminate the entire population of Wash- 
ington, New York, Chicago, and Pittsburg. 

.Statistics in the Health Office of Washington 
show that there were about one-third more deaths 
than births during the first six months of 189 1* 
How long would it take to exterminate the popula- 
tion, if there was no emigration? 

Are the doctors who had charge of those cities 
the same doctors who had those force bills passed 
in the cities and states, to prevent any doctors out 
side from practicing, selling, or making any new 
improvements whatsoever in medicines? That they 
must dictate what the people shall or what they 
shall not use? Dictate that a class of men shall 
monopolize the whole practice of medicine, who- 
have not a single sure cure for any disease in hu- 



45 

man life. They lost 800 children in two months 
of cholera infantum in the year 1890, and still 
more in 1891, this has become alarming. 

It was worse in Chicago in 1891 than the yellow 
fever ever was in any one year in New Orleans. 
La Grippe is a eureable disease and can be very 
•easily cured. I had during the first two weeks in 
April, 1891, 104 cases of La Grippe and lost none. 
I used only pure Botanical medicines. I have also 
analyzed every part of the human body and find it 
& purely vegetable body, a perfect composition of 
vegetable matter and I find that Botanical medi- 
cines are the only medicines that will agree with 
this pure vegetable body. This is as true as truth 
•can be. 



I commend the following article to my readers, 
taken from the works of the late eminent Botanical 
Physician, Dr. C. L Coffin, of London, England.: 

" In presenting this w r ork to the public, we do not 
seek to obtain any of those flattering encomiums 
which are often purchased at the expense of truth. 
We know that the science of Medical Botany will, 
•ere long, produce a complete revolution in the 
medical world, and as we shall, in animadverting 
on the errors of the ignorant excite the envy of 



46 

some, and awaken the hatred of other interested 
individvals, it will be our consolation to know 
that our reputation is now so fully established 
whenever our lectures have been heard and ou r 
practice has become known, that w T e neither have to 
fear the one, nor shrink from the consequences of 
the other. 

Doubtless the faculty will denounce us in the 
most ungenerous terms for having dared to arraign 
their practice before the bar of public opinion ; for 
this too we are prepared; so as we can summon to* 
our aid such evidence as will not only establish our 
principles, but silence effectually those who oppose 
us. 

Though we live in an age remarkable for its im- 
provements, and wonderful in its resources, science 
having given development to powers as incredible 
as they are astonishing ; yet, in the midst of all 
these advantages, selfishness steps in and proclaims 
aloud that none — save the Diplomatised — are com- 
petant to cure the sick, or minister to the afflicted,, 
when every day's history proves the folly of such a 
vain and egotistical policy. Why the medical 
world should arrogate to itself the prescriptive 
right of killing or curing at pleasure, is a problem 
we are not learned enough to solve; or why a man 
should be esteemed a clever physician because he 
has been educated in a college,, we are at a loss to* 



AT 

divine. Education is proper for all men. We 
would that all men were better educated than they 
are ; but education either means something or noth- 
ing — and if it be a reality, why should a physic- 
ian seek his diploma in a college ? Certainly not, 
but in the cottage where human nature lies suffer- 
ing on its couch of pain. Will a shred of parch- 
ment confer ability upon its possessor? Certainly 
not; it is a delusion to suppose it. An acre of 
parchment, a thousand books, or a \ ead stored with 
bad Latin, will not even make a shoemaker; what 
an absurdity then to suppose such things capable 
of making a physician. 

At this particular time when the schools are di- 
vided upon first principles, it is somewhat amusing 
to find the faculty not only disagreeing amongst 
themeslves, but positively denouncing each other 
as quacks, L e., ignorant pretenders in a work en- 
titled " Fallacies of the Faculty" we have abundant 
proof of this. The author ridicules, and justly too, 
the use of the lancet and the dissecting-knife ; what 
sensible man can admire the policy of cutting up a 
body after death in order to ascertain the nature 
of the malady of which the patient died? This ab^ 
surdity is only equalled by that of the philosopher 
who cut the bellows open to find out where the 
wind came from, and there is certainly as much 
philosophy in one case as in the other. 



48 

Indulgent nature provides a fitting remedy for 
every ill that flesh is heir to. Man in his igno- 
rance, too frequently rejects the boon that nature 
offers, and seeks in artificial aid an anodyne for ill. 
And so long as monoply in medicine is countenan- 
ced and applauded, so long must this state of things 
continue to exist; what better proof can we ask 
than that a man who undertakes to cure the sick, 
should be able to ascertain the cause of sickness, to 
know where to find a remedy and how it should be 
applied ? A physician should be taught that 
disease is a problem which it is his duty to solve. 
He should know that heat is the source of life — its 
absence death ; that a change of temperture w T ill 
produce a change in the animal economy; food is 
only administered for the purpose of creating blood, 
which, when distributed through every artery and 
veir, imparts health to the nerves, vigor to the 
muscles, and strength to the limbs; to preserve 
health we must regulate the temperature of the body 
and above all things avoid such irregularities as 
may lead to decay. 

After all, even though we succeed in proving 
more than was ever previously attempted by any 
other man, we know the faculty will not admit us, 
neither can we expect any favor at their hands nor 
will their practices receive much from us, we shall 
show that a knowledge of nature is not indigenous 



49 

to college life, but must be sought for in the woods 
and forests ; each sun-lit vale or verdant meadow, 
contains some agent of a remedial kind. A green 
herb is worth more than a latin phrase. 

Nature has a college of her own — in it we have 
studied, our sensibilities have been extremlv pained, 
when we beheld the young and beautiful cut down 
like the cedar which bends before the blast, when 
fever scosched the veins, or consumption dried up 
their crimson rivulets, and we beheld them carried 
to "that bourne from whence no traveller returns.' 
We reasoned thus with nature, "Is there no balm 
in Gile&d — no aim to save from death — no respite 
from the grave?'' The voice of nature breathed 
within our soul. We sought the woods, the fields, 
and the forests of our native land; from verdant 
banks we gathered healing herbs. We sought the 
sufferer on his bed of pain, we raised his drooping 
head, we bade him drink and live — nature revived 
within him, his languid eyes unclosed, his feeble 
arm again grew strong, his wife and children bless- 
ed us with their tears. This nerved our heart with 
hope. 

When the hot pestilence rained dow T n its firey 
ruin, we planted health where death had else beeni 
found. Amidst the fair fields of America we left 
a germ of knowledge richer far than stories of treas- 
ured gold; and providence has spread its sacred 



50 

wings around our daily path, and the grateful 
prayers of sufferers saved from pain are our reward. 
Thus our diploma is seen in the success which 
heaven hath thrown around us. 



Mortality. 

On account of violating the laws of nature, man 
is degenerating in the length of life, strength and 
durability every century. When he used nature's 
remedies for medicines and lived according to the 
laws of nature, he lived to the age of from one hun- 
dred to nine hundred years. The average at that 
time was one hundred and seventy-seven years. 
After he commenced to use artificial medicine he 
decreased in lei Jjth of life. Two thousand years 
ago the average length of man's life was one hun- 
dred and seventy-seven years, now it is only sixteen 
years and ten months. Fifteen hundred years ago 
down to eight hundred years ago the average stood 
at .three score and ten — seventy years. In eight 
hundred years the average has fallen from seventy 
to sixteen years and ten months. Why is this ? 
I will give to my dear readers just one starting 
point and they can work it out themselves and can 
then see why this is all so. 

In the summer of 1890 in two months eight hun- 



51 

dred children died under five years of age in Wash- 
ington, D. C; the average age being about one year 

and one month. Those who died under sixteen years 
and ten months during the same two months aver- 
aged about >even years. 



At What Age Do Most People Die? 

This question is often asked without any answer. 
I will answer it correctly to my readers. The high- 
est number of deaths are from the birth of the child 
to its first year ; the next highest is from the first 
to the second year ; next is from the second to the 
third year and so on it gradually decreases up to a 
hundred years. The average age of mankind is 
sixteen years and ten months. There are sixty - 
nine thousand deaths under one year of age to one 
between ninety-nine and one hundred years. 

There are sixty -nine thousand more deaths be- 
tween one and two years of age than there are be- 
tween ni net^-ei^ht and ninety-nine years; there 
are fifty-four-more deaths between the age two and 
three than'there are between ninety-seven and 
ninety-eight. This is the way it runs and it comes 
to an average of a little under seventeen years. 
This table may be denied; if it is let the one who 



52 

denies it make out a table himself and show where 
this one is not correct. 



My headquarters are failing to control my king- 
dom ; my picket guard cannot guard my constitu- 
tion, it is gone. I have no laws to go by. My 
■stomach is my government ; my teeth are my pick- 
et guards; my brain is my headquarters. I know 
that I have failed to keep a strict guard against the 
enemy of my government. In fact they have the 
balance of power over my head. They lead me in- 
to all sorts of vice and woe, but it is never to late 
to do good, so I will ally with another kingdom, 
known as the kingdom of good sense, and fight 
them again on this line and I will not let anything 
pass through my picket line unless I am perfectly 
satisfied that it is in full harmony with my consti- 
tution. 

Let it be food, drink or medicine, there is danger 
in all these, so I will look out for all of them from 
this time on as long as I live. I will not be led 
around longer by my stomach to places where I do 
not want to go, and where this last party says don't 
go you are safer at home. I like this last re- 
solution, where it says apply good common sense to 
everything you are going to do before you do it. 



53 

Now is it not wise for any person to be very 
careful what kind of fuel or food they put in their 
stomach, its what you eat that keeps you alive, your 
body is your own machine and the better care you 
take of it the longer it will last. It is a duty you 
owe to yourself and the God who gave you life, to 
look after your health and to be very careful how 
you eat and drink so as to live long. This is more 
important than anything in all your life. You can 
prolong your life if you will or you can destroy it 
at your will. Everything you eat or drink or do 
is surely a benefit or an injury to you. Nothing 
stops still to wait for you, you must look out for 
yourself through all this life. This is only too true. 
An honest man is the noblest work of God. 

If all men were honest and true, 

This world would be a paradise to you.. 



Europe had a Newton and a Wellington. 

Asia had a Mohammed and a Confucius. 

America had a Washington and a Franklin. 

The whole union of nations have a Christ and a 
Devil. 

Four were teachers of good to the people and 
four were teachers of strife and war. 

The devil is directly or indirectly at the head of 



54 



all evil, he leads the weak minded people to ruin in 
such a way that they cannot discover his ways and 
and tricks to deceive them. 



A WORD TO PARENTS. 

As soon as a child is three or four weeks old 
feed it with every thing thatagrees with mother; what 
the mother eats makes milk and likewise will agree 
with the baby. If the mother has no milk for her 
baby have a cow fed on corn-meal, wheat, beans and 
timothy hay, and a few potatoes, once a day ; then 
feed the baby on the same nutritious food and you 
will have fat and healthy children. 

Feed your children with a spoon or cup ; not a 
bottle or tube. Don't toss your baby up and down 
but when they get tired lying in one position turn 
them over; they ought to be turned over often. 
Don't hug your children while their bones are soft 
and tender. 



If there is any doctor or any one else who wants 
to make a specialty of any one disease I mention in 
this book, I will teach them confidently and separ- 
ately. 






DR. STARR'S BOTANICAL PILLS. 

If you want to live healthy and long rake one of 
Dr. Starr's Liver Pills once or twice a week. If 
you go to a yellow fever country take one of Dr. 
Starr's Liver Pills every day and you won't have 
it. If you have La Grippe take one of Dr. Starr's 
Liver PjIIs every day and they will cure it. 



It is not natural nor was it intended by the Cre- 
ator of nature for plants to die in the middle of the 
summer ; if they do, something is surely wrong. 
Neither was it intended by the Great all wise God 
for any human being to die in mid-life or under 
his or her normal age. If a child is once healthy 
and sound in every respect and is then treated 
strictly according to the intention of the Creator, 
it will live to its' normal age, three-score and ten 
years or more. If a child is once in perfect health 
and its parents know just what to give it to eat at 
all times and how much, and at what hours, and 
how much to exercise it and at what hours, just as 
Nature s Law demands all through life ; then such 
person or persons would live their days out as in- 
tended from the beginning. 

Every human being should go to bed at dark: 



56 

and do all their work by the light of the sun. Do 
not work by artificial lights at all. 

Children should go to bed at dark to become 
healthy and strong: men and women. 



How the author of this book has lived all through 
his life. 

He never drank any intoxicating liquors of any 
kind. He never chewed or smoked tobacco. He 
never ate as much as he could at any meal. He 
never drank more than a half tumbler of ice water 
or more than a tumbler of pump water at a time. 
He never would eat anything that was not good for 
his stomach or cause any disorder in his digestive 
organs. This was the great study of Ins life as to 
what to eat, how much and at what time, to be healthy 
and strong. He never ran as fast as he could. 
Jvever lifted as much as he could. Never went 
under the water with his head. He goes to bed at 
eight and gets up at five o'clock. He eats at seven, 
iwelve and five o'clock. These have been his habits 
since he was fourteen years of age and he is now 
nearly seventy-eight, and is in perfect health and 
can endure as much as most young men. He has 
not lost a meal on account of sickness for fifty-seven 
years. He takes regular exercise every day, rain 
«or shine. 



.)< 



The greatest man in the world is the one that 
raises the most grain to feed mankind. 

The greatest woman in the world is the one that 
raises the most children. 

The greatest friend to the working man is the 
man who employs the most of them. 

The wisest man in the world is the man that 
takes best care of his health every day. 

The wisest man in business is the man that saves 
what he makes and earns. 

The greatest fool in the world is the man that 
works the hardest all the week and spends all his 
money on Saturday and Sunday and goes to work 
penniless and sick on Monday. 

Every body ought to go to bed when the sun 
goes down, and rise with the sun in the morning ; 
this is Nature's Law since the beginning of the 
world. 

The man that lives nearest to the Laws of Nat- 
ure will naturally live the longest. 

The man that violates the laws of nature sins 
.against his own flesh, 

A boy who smokes and chews tobacco before he 
is sixteen years of age will never grow to his nor- 
mal size in body or strength, nor will he live his 
normal days out. 

Every thing you eat, drink, smoke, or chew is 
either a benefit or an injury to you. Examine 



53 

this yourself and you will find this only too true. 



The following is the death and birth rate accord- 
ing to the Health Officer's .report for. the last five 
vears in the District of Columbia.. 



Deaths, year 


en 


ding June 3-0 


, 18.8-6,. 


4,671 


a u 




i c u a 


1887,. - 


4,665 


a a 




' u u u 


1888, 


5,040' 


u u 




u ex. a 


1889, 


5,152 


u a 




u u U 


1890, 


5,564 




25,09.5- 


Births, year 


ai 


iing June 30, 


1886, 


3,522 


u a 




« a a 


1887, 


3,728 


u a 




a a a 


1888<, 


3,670- 


U u 




ll a. a 


1889, 


4,001 


i. iC 




u u a 


1890, 


4,070- 




18,991 


Still birth, year 


ending June 


30, 1886, 


- 421 


a a 


a 


a a 


" 1887, 


406 


a a 


u 


a u 


'< 1888, 


- 458 


a a 


u 


a a 


" 1889, 


- 443 


cc u 


u 


a a 


" 1890, 


- 474 



2,202 



m 

Births, ------ 18,991 

Still births, ----- 2,202 

Total, 21,193 

Deaths for five years ending June 30, ? 90 25,094 
Births for five years ending June 30, ? 90 21,193 



Deaths over births. 3,902 

The figures show three thousand nine hundred 
and two more deaths than births. 



Reports of the Health Officer for the two weeks 
ending June 23, 1891, were 140 deaths and follow- 
ing week ending June 30, 1891, were 170 deaths; 
showing an increase of 30 deaths in one week. 

The above is the two last weeks before the pub- 
lication of this book. 

It shows a gradual increase of deaths. Now 
where are our doctors if it depends altogether on 
the weather as to how many people die. 

This is a point blank proof that the present prac- 
tice of medicine is a failure and that the number of 
deaths depend entirely on the changes of the weath- 
er and the care the people take of themselves. I 
have a positive cure for Cholora Infantum in hot 
or cold weather- 



60 ZZZ 

From April 7, 1888 to August 19, 1888, 800 
babies died under 3 years of age, said to be caused 
by milk. About August 19, average deaths were 
10 per day. 



Remedies. 

This is the way a doctor writes about drugs: — 
As for treatment I have just been looking over 
Lander Brunton, Aitken Hooper and some others 
of the same class. Certainly I had to study them 
in the days gone by, but just now, for the sake of 
my fellow men I have been giving them special at- 
tention. Dear me ! How can miserable disease 
live in front of so terrible an array of terrible re- 
medies! What canst thou not have, poor man? 
Dry cupping, hot poultices, muriate, tincture of 
iron (muriatic acid and iron filings dissolved), car- 
bonate, chlorate of ammonia, aconite, tartar emetic r 
foxglove, ipecacuanha, paregoric, opium and its- 
preparations, chloral hydrate, belladonna, colchi- 
cum, copabia, croton oil, quinine, turpentine, lead,, 
jalap, lobelia, mercury, eucalyptus, nitric acid r 
alum, pilocarpine, calabar bean, zinc, potash, thorn 
apple, strychnia, arsenic, hemlock, petroleum, in- 
dian hemp, and other drugs equally glorious — all 



61 

are ready to woo the serpent of thy life to rest, or 
to kill thee in the attempt. 

Truly, I would as soon face a regiment of the old 
guard of France, as the formidable drugs mention- 
ed. Never mind, its an ill wind that blows nobody 
good, especially registers of births and deaths. 

From HalVs Journal of Health. 



I have a positive cure for gonorrhoea in any 
stage. 






Deatli Rate, 

There are 30,000 regular Botanical Doctors in 
the United States. If Congress were to pass a law 
excluding them from practice and destroying their 
influence, the mortality would increase at least 40 
per cent, and reduce the average length of the life 
of man below the average of twelve years. In other 
words, people could not say that their lives were 
their own. 



•62 

Xiivex* Fills. 

For Bilious Complaint, Colds, Headaches, Pains 
t in the Body or Limbs, &c, and are a positive cure 
for Nervousness or Indigestion. 

They never fail in any case of fever. ' This pill 
has been more successful in curing deseases than 
any other pill ever made. The more they are 
used the more they pleas£. They -have "no equal on 
earth. There is no' harm in them, and they can be 
used by either man, women or -child in every kind 
1 of complaints. 

They are a positive cure for St. Vitus Dance and 
other cases of bad health. Their use will build up 
-any person if properly and regularly taken. 

I have cured many cases of fevers with them 
without giving anything else. 

I have also a pill that will cure any ease of La 
Grippe in this country every time, they have not 
failed in a single case in a thousand cases. 

Sent to any part of the United States, postage 
£paid, on receipt of price. 
Price 25 cents per box. 

DR. V. M. STARR, 
.709 G Street, N- W-, Washington, D. C. 



DH, STARR'S KIDNEY TEA. 

A Positive Cure, this tea has been used by men, 
women and children with perfect success in many 
thousand cases of all kinds of Kidney Diseases, it 
Dissolves Gravel, cures Diabetus r Backache, drives- 
gases from the stomach, is healthy and has a good 
taste, is often used as table tea, can use it hot or 
cold, sugar and milk as your choice, and as much 
and as often as you want. Price 25 cents per box.. 

This Kidney tea is the first and only positive- 
cure ever discovered for any case of Kidney Disease. 
It will cure any case and has never failed yet. It 
tastes better than store tea and is as cheap, and is 
perfectly healthy to use as regular table tea at your* 
meals. It can be cultivated as plentiful in this 
country as China tea is in China, and is a thousand 
times as Jiealthy. It can be made to out sell China 
tea if some moneyed men would take it in hand 
and run it vigorously. The flavor of it can be 
changed, by the combination of the plants, to suit 
the taste of any tea drinker. It is the most per- 
fect discovery ever made in the vegetable kingdom., 
and it will save millions of lives^ in this country. 



34 

. Dr. Starr's Cough Syrup. 

The great medical desideratum of the world at 
last discovered, all in herbs. 

This wonderful discovery consists of a syrup 
compounded of twelve herbs, and pills compounded 
of four herbs, constituting a perfect and infallible 
oure for coughs, colds, croup, hoarseness, catarrh, 
or any case of throat and lung diseases. 

If -used for first cold or cough is a preventative 
of consumption and a pleasant relief for whooping 
cough. Not a single person who has used this 
medicine for coughs or colds has ever been known 
to go into decline. 

It has a good taste; is healthy, nutritious and 
harmless, and can be given to children of any age. 

I have thousands of letters of the most miracu- 
lous cures that I have made of old and long stand- 
ing cases, cases that had been considered hope- 
lessly lost; everything had failed. I never exhibi- 
ted a letter of recommendation where I was the 
first doctor called, in any case of any kind, or of 
any disease. All my letters are of cases that 
Tiad received no relief or good from any other 
source. 

I am prepared and do ship these medicines to all 
1 parts of the Union or Europe in any quantity. 



6a 

CHILLS AND FEVER TEA. 

ALL HERBS. 

►For Chills and Fever this tea is a perfect cure, 
:and will cure any kind of fever used with my Liver 
.Pills, and is also an excellent tonic. 

AVe are prepared and do ship these Medicines to 
all parts of the Union or Europe, in any quantity. 



FRIDAY HAPPENINGS. 

Washington born on Friday. 

Queen Victoria married on Friday. 

Xepoleon'Bonaparte born on Friday. 
.Battle of Bunker Hill fought on Friday. 
.America discovered on Friday. 

Mayflower landed on Friday. 
• Joan of Arc burned at the stake on Friday. 

Battle of Waterloo fought on Friday. 
.Bastile destroyed on Friday. 

Declaration of Independence signed on Friday. 

Battle of Marengo fought on Friday. 

Julius Caesar assassinated on Friday. 

Moscow burned on Friday. 

Shakespeare born on Friday. 

King Charles 1 beheaded cm Friday. 
.Battle of New Orleans fought on Friday. 
.Lincoln assassinated on Friday. 



66 

mmsm a ws ¥«&#w flirt m 
Pills and Tea. 

A most wonderful discovery in Botany and one 
of very great importance to the American people, 
especially in the southern states. 

I have a pill and tea which will prevent any case 
of yellow fever if used according to the directions, 
and they will cure nine out of ten cases in their 
first stage. I believe they will be made a perfect 
preventative and cure in all the yellow fever sec- 
tions of this country, whenever a party with money 
will put them in the market for that purpose. 

I sent a man from this city to Florida with them 
three years ago where he cured every case he could 
get. 

He even cured two cases after they were given 
up by their doctors. One was a servant of the 
health office in Tampa and one was a captain of a 
ship. In new cases we had no trouble. 

I can send these remedies by mail, postpaid, to 
any part of the country. 

Pills, price fifty cents per box. 

Tea, price fifty cents per box. 



07 

Cholera Infantum Powders. 

Will cure any case of Cholera Morbus, Cholera 
Infantum in man, woman or child. It is healthy, 
nutritious and strengthening, is purely botanical 
and can be used as food for children of any age 
with milk or water. 

They are a positive and infallible cure every 
time. We have used them in many thousand cases 
and have not lost one case yet and do not expect to. 

This is the most wonderful discovery yet made 
by mortal man. Over one hundred thousand chil- 
dren die annually from cholera infantum in the U. 
S., and not a single doctor has ever come to their 
relief with a sure cure, but they come to see them 
and give them one kind of medicine and the next 
time give some other kind and soon until the child 
is dead, without receiving any benefit whatever 
from the medical aid, but have been cheated out of 
their lives. One hundred thousand per annum! 
What a shame ! What a rebuke to the medical 
profession ! Can't cure cholera infantum, can't 
cure la grippe, cant cure kidney diseases. Can't 
cure anything ; if they will come to me I will 
teach them positive cures for a consideration. 
Dr. W. M. STARR, Prest, 

Botanical School of Medicines. 



68 



us. sir &&&'§ 

ffiffi#A?$€ BALSA] 



The finest and only perfect Balsam in use, and is 
a sure cure for all cases of rheumatism, headache,, 
neuralgia, toothache, pains, bruises, sprains, etc. 

The ancient Balm of Gilead again discovered and 
in use. A pure and useful preparation in vegetable 
chemistry, which by its cleansing powers drives alii 
pains and impurities from the skin, and imparts a 
clearness and freshness to the painful places. 

Truly wonderful ! It drives out all pain ! Cures- 
bruises and sprains! It will cure frost-bites, bun- 
ions, all pains in the body or limbs, swellings, etc. 
This Balm of Gilead Balsam for the purposes 
for which it is intended, is the purest and most ef- 
fective liniment in the world, if properly and suffi- 
ciently used in all cases. 

All of my preparations are composed of herbs, 
fresh from the fields and woods. They are gather- 
ed by myself and prepared on scientific principles, 
and make the best and safest family medicine in use- 
All dry paks sent free by mail to any part of the- 
United States. DR. W. M. SMARR, 

709 G Street, N. W*. 



69 



BALM OF GILEAD WASH, 

For the Toilet, Bathing, Shampooing, Cleaning 
Jewelry, or any other goods or washing any fine 
garments and for Ladies' use generally. 

For washing silver, gold, or tin-ware more or 
less may be used. 

For shampooing or toilet use, cleaning marble, 
•door knobs, and in like cases it is cleansing, sweet, 
and healthy, and for washing children of all ages it 
is the best preparation in use, it is good for swollen 
feet and ankles caused by too much standing or 
-walking. It is an excellent preparation for ladies' 
use generally. 



BALM OF G-ILEAD SALVE. 

Cures Piles and other Sores. 



Dr. Starr's La Grippe Pills. 

They have never been known to fail to cure in 
any case and it is a positive fact that they will cure 
all cases every time, without changing to any other 
disease whatsoever. 



'70 

Every farmer in the world is abotonist, a botan- 
ical doctor. They support and feed the whole peo- 
ple and the people can't live a single w T eek without 
the farmer's products, neither can business of any 
kind go on without these products. In fact the 
farmer is the supporter of the whole world. 

If the farmers were to fail and stop all would 
stop. There would be no use for doctors then to 
give poison medicines to vegetable bodies and de- 
stroy them that way. Is not farmonian and boto- 
nian principles the fundimental principles of all 
medicines ? 

I say there is nothing on earth to make perfect 
medicine from outside the vegetable kingdom ; nor 
is there anything to sustain life outside the farmers 
products ; both of which go together, first, last and 
all the time. 

I challenge any man or sect on earth to dispute 
one w T ord of this and prove it not to be true. 

Poison is good for rats, mice, flies, wolves and 
sheep killing dogs or something like these, but not 
for children, men or women. 



Never drink more than a wine glass of ice water 
at a time and not more frequent than once in half 
an hour, nor more than a glass of any water at a 
time. 



71 

Never eat as much at a time as you could, always 
eat a little less. 

Never over work yourself. 

Never stand, sit or lie in a draft when you are 
overheated. 

Boys and girls should eat but very little or no 
pickle and very little lemon at all. What you eat 
often makes you sick, eat healthy food only, protect 
your stomach and you will protect your health and 
prolong your life. 



I say the people have a right to go to a dry goods 
house and buy what they want or go to grocery 
store and buy what they want or go to a drug store 
and buy what they want. Use their own judgment 
as to what they want or what they need. Know ye 
thyself, be ye wise. 



The alopathic idea that the way to cure one dis- 
ease is to create another of a different sort, and that 
therefore the most powerful poisons are the most 
potent medicines, may justly claim that its system 
is sound in theory and successful in practice. This 
is a gigantic mistake and wrong. 



72 

COKN POEM. 

People violate nature's laws, 
Which truely is disease's cause ; 
Tight boots they wear without a fear, 
But corns you know will then appear. 

Nature has the strictest way, 
Who violates will get their pay, 
In bunions and those cursed corns, 
Which pain the feet as bad as thorns. 

But Dr. Starr's Balsam Extractor, 
Is warranted to be au actor, 
And when applied upon your corn, 
Kemoves a scale as hard as horn. 

Never causing any sore, 
Nov the blood to run or pour. 
A bottle costs you fifty cents, 
Saving pain and great expense. 

Soak your corns well every evening and scrape 
off all hard parts of them and they will soon be 
cured. 



HOESBS. 

In writing this work I feel it my duty to say 
something about the horse, an animal, beyond all 
question or doubt, a helpmate of men in his many 
avocations of life. The horse is shamefully abused, 
and without cause in many instances, and he wh o 



73 

mistreats a horse or any dumb animal without cause 
or provocation, is in human, and should be chatised 
to teach him the fact that a horse cannot reason, 
and a man can, and that cruelty is the offspring of 
a mean person. When a man is riding a horse he 
should always remember that a horse has to walk 
and carry him too. A man that will mistreat his 
horse will also mistreat his wife and children. The 
wild Indians have an instinctive kindness for their 
•horses and their dogs. Men should remember that 
a horse has an appetite, and a body made of flesh 
and bone, nerves and blood, and can feel as well as 
man, and needs shelter and care. 

There is a horse hygiene as well as a human one; 
there is a horse physiology as well as a human phy- 
siology, and all good men know this is a fact. I 
have seen men plough horses all day when they 
^vould stagger under the harness for the want of 
feed, and at the same time their crib was full of corn. 
I once knew a man who was a thief and a miser, 
who would work his horses from sun-up till sun 
•down, and feed them a little morning and night, 
and at the same time had plenty of corn in his crib. 
When he was filling his stomach with what his 
brutish nature demanded, I would steal from his 
•crib a bountiful feed of corn and give it to the poor 
tired, hunger horses. They would nicker so thank- 
ful when they saw it coming, and would eat cob kS 



74 

and all. In a short time the man made the remark: 
that his horses were looking better, and he was not 
obliged to whip and holloa at them so much. This- 
man belonged to the Methodist church and profes- 
sed religion; but ye shall know a tree by its fruit. 
A man owes a duty to every animal under his con- 
trol, and the horse in special. I will now give you 
a few Indian ideas of how to take care of horses. 
They pride themselves in taking good care of all 
their pets, and I Avould to God it was the case with 
the white man. The Indian, when he feeds his 
horse always feeds him on the ground, that is, he 
places his feed so that he is obliged to hold, his 
head down in order to get it. The wild horse has 
to get all his food with his head down. It is nat- 
ural. 

HOW TO KEEP HORSES HEALTHY AT LITTLE EX- 
PENSE. 

If you would have healthy horses, with pure 
blood and slick hair, give them twice a week a 
pinch of equal parts of pulvarizcd sulphur, wood 
ashes and salt, equal to the size of a common mar- 
ble, mixed with their feed. This is cheap nnd 
simple and will keep your horses healthy. The 
Indians keep their horses in good condition with 
ashes and eggs. 



To My Many Readers. 

I will say to you, use your own judgment, unin- 
fluenced by any prejudice that may have previously 
existed in your minds. Give my advice a trial if 
you need it, and judge me and what I say by the 
effects. I give you my word and honor most sol- 
emnly, that all I have told you is safe for the most 
delicate person to try without the slightest danger 
of producing any effect detrimental, either tempor- 
ary or permanent. A wise person will glean know- 
ledge from whatever source it may arise. The 
compass of the Indian is the moss on the north side 
of the tree, which is knowledge from a natural 
source gleaned by the wild untutored savage. I 
will further say, good education is the only reliable 
means to lasting reforms, and will teach people 
to think for themselves, and that simple medical 
facts have been hidden in the past by technical 
words, but to-day are told in common English. 

DR. STARR. 



Botanicism— The Free Thinkers of Medicine. .. 

The right to choose the best from all of the many 
ideal theories of medicine ; liberty uncircumscribed 
by the teachings of fanatics; freedom to judge for 



ire 

yourself that which is *best of -all that you can learn 
of the many ideas of medical men of the world. 
Love for all, hatred toward none; freedom of thought 
and the right to counsel with all, ungoverned by a 
mean disgraceful code of ethics. Liberty to exercise 
-good common sense, and use that which is best cal- 
culated to do good in the case in which it is indica- 
ted. This is the true definition of the Botanical Pro- 
fession. They are the most prosperous class of 
'doctors on the face of the world, because they be- 
lieve in personal liberty as well as general liberty, 
:and that which is right, and hate smart fanatics. 



When persons living at a distance desire treat- 
ment, they can, by writing answers to the following 
-questions, send such a statement of their condition 
^ts will enable me to comprehend the character of 
their disease, and prescribe the proper remedies foi- 
sts cure. 

All letters should be addressed to Dr. Wm. M. 
Starr, Botanical Medicines, 709 G Street, N. W., 
Washington, D. C. 

ANSWER THESE QUESTIONS. 

Your name. 



77: 



Age and occupation. 

Post Office address. 

Are you strong or weak ? 

Give a short account of your disease? 



rasnromiAB. 



Washington, D. C, July 30, 1890. 
Dr. W. M. Starr . 

This certifies that twice I was operated upon at 
Garfield Hospital at different times and each time 
was a perfect failure. J. Ford Thompson was my 
Surgeon. I grew worse and saw certain death was 
for me, so I left in a perfect wrecked condition : 
utterly unable to lift five pounds, or stand one 
minute, so great was my agony. I had other phy- 
sicians, all without one jot of help. I continued to 
grow worse, until at my brothers house I drank 
some of Dr. Starr's Kidney Tea and at once I saw 
its Diuretic action and I had some hope. On meet- 
ing Dr. Starr I demanded of him if I could be 
cured (for I had lost the coating of my stomach and 
I was in the very last stage of Bright's Disease of 
the Kidneys, and I also had a very large stone in 
my bladder). Dr.. Starr said that the cause was 



78 

still in my system which caused me to go to the 
hospital. I said, Doctor, can you cure me, for I 
was given up to die by all physicians. He said 
certainly I can cure you. I at once went under 
his treatment and to-day nearly one pound and a 
half of stone has come out of my bladder. My 
Bright's Disease is perfectly cured and the coating 
of my stomach is sound and new. I thank God 
when all physicians and friends gave me up to die, 
Dr. W. M. Starr positively declared in my dying 
presence that I should live, and I am alive and will 
gladly answer any inquiry as to the enormous stone 
taken from my bladder, which I have in my pos- 
session. 

I remain a devoted advocate to Dr. W.. M. Starr 
and all his positive remedies. 

Dr. Nelson Calvin Page, 
406 7th Street, S.-W., 

Washington, D. C. 



Washington, D. C, February 5, 1878. 
Dr. W. M. Starr, 

Dear Sir: Injustice to you and for the benefit 
of suffering humanity, I make this statement. I 
have been a sufferer for years ^vith what the physi- 
cians term Bright's Disease of the Kidneys. 

Though I had the most eminent physicians, still 
I found no relief, until I found your Balm of Gilead 



70 

which did all it was recommended to do. I was so- 
bad at that time that the doctor said I would have 
to go through an operation which I dreaded very 
much. It was at this time I was persuaded to try 
your medicine, of which I found relief almost im- 
mediately. I have recommended it to others with 
the same result. Very respectfully, 

George W. Hill, 
90 Myrtle St., n. e. 



Washington, D. C, March, 1885. 
Dr. W. M. Starr, 

Dear Sir : Having suffered at intervals for ten 
years with kidney troubles and found scarcely any 
relief, concluded to try your Kidney Tea, ?t the 
time I had had no rest for three successive weeks,, 
and was also suffering from a cold which affected my 
back and kidneys, causing intense misery, so much 
so that no physician gave me any relief until taking 
about a pint of your tea. In fifteen minutes or 
less relief came, such a change that it was like unto 
a perfect health restored, that was indeed relief as- 
sured and since, or to this time, September, I am 
still enjoying the benefits of such wonderful treat- 
ment of such delicate members of the body. You 
will please ever accept the thanks of, 
Yours respectfully, 

David E. Dutrow, 

Butter Dealer, 
La. Ave. n. w. 



80 

Washington, D. C, Nonember 26, 1884. 
Dear Sir : I take this method of returning my 
thanks for the great benefit I have derived from the 
vise of your medicine. For a long time I was afflic- 
ted with Kidney disease, having tried several re- 
medies without any relief, I was induced to give 
your Kidney medicine a trial. I did so, and it 
acted upon me like magic, for it give instant relief, 
and one box made a permanent cure, and I cheer- 
fully recommend it to any sufferer from the dread- 
ful malady. Very respectfully, 

R. C. Gover, 

317 4J St., n. w. 



The following persons of Washington, D. C. 
have voluntarily given testimonials of the superior 
merit and value of Dr. Starr's Cough Syrup in the 
cure of Coughs, Colds, Catarrh and Croup, and w r e 
present them as reference. 

Mrs. Wheeler, 1626 L Street. 

M. Daniels Cor. Penn. Ave. and 6th St. 

R. H. Moore 1427 9th St. 

. Annie Watkins '. 206 7th St. 

M. A. Lock 420 Capitol St. 

: Mrs. A. Cronan ,, 326 13th St. 

Mrs. W. M. Boyd..... 209 36th St. 

vC. Comially 9 5th St. 



81 

John Engall 27 and L St. 

Mary Sandfrey 614 1st St. 

Rich. Hunt 1735 N. I.Ave. 

S. M. Ney 610 G St. 

NathDyer 27 E St. 

L. Groover 517 N. I. Ave. 

C. Strauss Centre Market. 

G. C. Smith 316 A St, 

Mis. E. Steffin 520 12 St. 

Mrs. Snyder 611 N. Y. Ave. 

H. B. Vanns 325 A St. 

W. P. Stragham 19th and M St. 

Joe Henley 1810 M St. 

Emma Copersmith 467 N St. 

M. A. Carman 219 Centre Market. 

D. S. Brown 113 Pudge Court, 

Sarah Jones 

Susan Swutze 3239 K St. 

J. Belim 

J. C. Jackson 120 B St. 

C. W. Chapman 309 14th St. 

M. E. Hayes,.'. 1610 16th St. 

G. H. Tacker 623 Va. Ave. 

Jane Ames 1101 6th St. 

C. C. Mayer ...486 La. Ave. 

Jane Williams ...415 7th St. 

Annie Hanley 1119 19th St. 

S. N. Dillan 502 11th St. 



82 

John E. Rolin ; Rolin, Va. 

Brook King Rolin, Va. 

Emma Avery Alexandria, Va. 

Each one of these testimonials are from persons 
who were afflicted with chronic cases most of them 
having been given up as incurable or past all hope 
of recovery. I never exhibited any letters from a 
person whom I attended first, all are from old cases. 



A house which cannot stand alone without being 
propped up is a dangerous house to live in, and in 
fact is not fit to live in at all. Neither is a doctor 
or any other class of men who need laws to force, 
the people to employ them fit to be trusted in any 
way. 

A doctor who claims that he has a license to give 
poison medicine to " kill or cure " at his will, is in 
effect to claim that he has a license to murder. 

If the Czar was to issue such a license his 
head would not be on his shoulders one week. If 
the Emperor of China were to make such a law the 
walls around Pekin would not save him a day. 
Let a doctor stand alone on his own merits and his 
success in making cures. No monopoly. 



S3 



Copies of two of the Bills now pending before Con- 
gress. The first Bill offered in the interest of 
the Allopaths and second Bill in defense of the 
Botanists. My readers can judge which of them 



is right and honest. 



51st CONGRESS, Q1 oon^ 

1st Session. io. &0\y\J. 



IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES. 

January 20, 1890. 

Mr. Ingalls (by request) introduced the following 
bill; which was read twice and referred 
to the Committee on the Dis- 
trict of Columbia. 



A BILL 

To regulate the practice of medicine in the District 

of Columbia. 

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Repre- 
sentatives of the United State* of America in Congress 
assembled, That there shall be for the District of 
Columbia a board of medical examiners, consisting 
of fifteen physicians or surgeons (five of whom shall 
be of the homeopathic school) and three dental sur- 
geons, whose terms of office shall be four years, or 
until their successors are appointed. 



84 

Sec. 2. That the board shall be appointed by the 
District Commissioners immediately, upon the pass- 
age of this act, and every four years thereafter. 
Vacancies occurring in the said board shall be filled 
in the same manner. If any of the said examiners 
shall cease to reside in the District, it shall vacate 
his office. No member of the said board shall be 
a member of the faculty of any medical school. 

Sec. 3. That the officers of the board shall be a 
president, a vice-president, and a secretary (who 
shall also act as treasurer) ; said officers to be mem- 
bers of and elected by the said board. The first 
meeting shall be held within thirty days after the 
District Commissioners shall have notified the 
members of their appointments. Subsequent meet- 
ings shall be held at such times as the board may 
prescribe, upon the call of the president issued by 
the secretary. Said board may organize at its first 
meeting, and at its first, or any subsequent meeting, 
prescribe rules, regulations, and by-laws for its own 
proceedings and government, and for the examina- 
tion of all candidates for the practice of medicine 
or dentistry appearing before it. 

Sec. 4. That it shall be the duty of the said 
board at any of its meetings to examine all persons 
of either sex, appearing before it who desire to prac- 
tice medicine or dentistry in the District of Co- 
lumbia ; and when a candidate shall have passed a 
satisfactory examination before the board in session 
the president thereof shall grant to such candidate 
certificate to that effect. A fee of ten dollars shall 
be paid to said board by each candidate before such 
examination is had. Examinations may be in whole 



or in part in writing and shall be elementary and 
practical in character, but sufficiently strict to test 
the qualifications of the candidate. No candidate 
shall be kept waiting for an examination for a lon- 
ger period than thirty days. In case any candidate 
shall fail to pass a satisfactory examination before 
the board such failure shall not bar the said candi- 
date against a re-examination after the lapse of 
three months, nor shall he again have to pay the- 
fee prescribed as aforesaid: Provided, That the 
members of the board representing each school of 
medicine shall have the right to examine all the ap- 
plicants who are of that school, and that the mem- 
bers of the board representing the dental branch of 
the medical profession shall have the right to ex- 
amine all applicants for the practice of dental sur- 
gery, and the board shall issue the certificate of 
qualification to candidates who are recommended 
after such examination by the members of the board 
who belong to said school of medicine or said branch 
of the medical profession. No examination shall 
be held by less than three members of the board, 
one of whom shall be the secretary of the same. 

Sec. 5. That any person who shall obtain a cer- 
tificate as aforesaid from the president of the board 
shall cause the same to be registered in the office of 
the health officer of the District ; and it shall be the 
duty of said health officer to indorse thereon the 
fact and date of registration, and to register the 
name of every such person, together with descrip- 
tion of such certificate and the date thereof, signing 
the same in a book kept for the purpose ; this reg- 
ister shall be open for inspection during office hours 



8G 

end Fhall form part of the records of his office. 

Sec. 6. That the board of medical examiners 
shall keep a record of its proceedings, which shall! 
be open for inspection, and shall record the name 
of each applicant, the date of and names of mem- 
bers of the board present at each examination, to- 
gether with a list of all questions put to the candi- 
dates and the percentage attained by each. 

Sec. 7. That all physicians, surgeons, and den- 
tists who are in practice in the District of Colum- 
bia on the date of the passage of this act and mem- 
bers of the Marine-Hospital Service, the Medical 
Corps of the Army and of Navy, who may be now or 
hereafter detailed on duty in this Distriet to heal 
the sick, shall be granted certificates of qualification 
by the board without any examination whatever* 
Salaried employees of the United States Govern- 
ment, other than those hereinbefore provided for,, 
shall not be eligible for examination or certification* 
and shall not be registered as practitioners of medi- 
dine or dentistry in the District of Columbia. 
Practitioners of medicine in the adjoining States 
whose professional duties require them to officiate 
in the District shall not be required to register if 
they are legal practitioners of the States in which 
they reside. 

Sec. 8. That no persons shall practice medicine 
or dentistry in the District of Columbia after the 
passage of this act without first having obtained 
from the said board of medical examiners a certifi- 
cate of qualification and caused the same to be re- 
gistered asaforasaid : Provided, That all physicians, 
surgeons, and dentists who are in practice in the 



87 

District of Columbia on the date of the passage of 
this act, who shall procure certificates of qualifica- 
tion and present the same at the health office for 
registration within sixty days after the date of the 
first meeting of the said board of medical examiners, 
shall be taken as having complied with the provis- 
ions of this section. 

Sec. 9. That any person shall be regarded as 
practicing medicine or dentistry within the mean- 
ing of this act who shall advertise by sign in front 
of office or dwelling, or shall treat or operate for 
tiny physical ailment of another. But nothing in 
this act shall be construed to prohibit service in 
-cases of emergency or the domestic administration 
of family remedies. 

Sec. 10. That no person not a registered prac- 
titioner of medicine shall offer for sale any drug, 
nostrum, ointment, or any application of am kind, 
or by writing, printing, or other methods profess 
to cure or treat any disease or deformity by any 
drug, nostrum, manipulation, or other expedient 
in this District without first obtaining from the 
secretary of said board a certificate setting forth 
that the said article or articles may be offered for 
sale, or the said method of treatment may be allow- 
ed without manifest injury to the public welfare ; 
and it shall be the duty of the said board to regu- 
late the issue of said certificates. 

Sec. 11. That any person violating any of the 
provisions of this act shall be punished by a fne of 
not less than twenty dollars nor more tliMi * ne 
hundred dollars, or by imprisonment for a period 
of not less than thirty (lavs nor more than three 



ss 

hundred and sixty-five days, or by both such fine 
and imprisonment for each and every offense. 

Sec. 12. That nothing in this act shall be taken 
as including or affecting in any way the business of 
the registered pharmacist, nor shall it include phy- 
sicians or surgeons residing elsewhere and called in 
consultation with a physician residing in the Dis- 
trict, nor shall it apply to women who pursue the 
avocation of midwife. 

Sec. 13. That the board shall make an i nnual 
report to the District Commissioners. 

Sec. 14. That the fees received from the candi- 
dates for examination shall be applied by the board 
towards its expenses, including a reasonable com- 
pensation to its members. 

Sec. 15. That all acts or parts of acts inconsis- 
tent or in conflict with this act are hereby repealed. 

Sec. 16. That this act shall be in force from its 



51st CONGRESS XT "R 11 ^A^ 



IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. 

July 28, 1890. 
Read twice, referred to the Committee on the Dis- 
trict of Columbia, and ordered to be printed. 



Mr. Culbeesox, of Texas, (by request) introduced 



the following bill : 



89 

A BILL 

To regulate the practice of medicine in the District 

of Columbia. 

Re it enacted by the Senate and House of Repre- 
sentatives of the United States of America in Con- 
gress assembled, That the Botanical School of Medi- 
cine shall have all the rights, privileges, and pro- 
tection now provided by the law for allopathic and 
homeopathic schools of medicine within the District 
of Columbia, and the teachers and professors of said 
Botanical School of Medicine shall have the same 
privileges and rights respecting the teaching and 
practice of their profession as may be accorded by 
existing laws to either of said other schools of 
medicine. 



Why shall this Bill. not Pass? 



Is it not fair ? Is it not just ? Is it not right ? 
Is it not in accordance with our system of govern- 
ment ? Does it not give equal rights to all ? Does it 
not correspond with the right granted to all other 
business men in this country to make all improve- 
ments they can and use them under all laws ; then 
why shall the Botanical Schools of Medicines not 
have the right to make improvements in medicines 
as any other school, and to practice and to teach 



90 



the new and wonderful discovery in Medical Botany 
such as has never been discovered before ? 



SCIENCE IK BOT-AHY. 



The Botanical By-Law. 

Sec. 1. Any man who wants to be a student in 
this profession, must first prove himself to be a 
natural genius in every respect. 

Sec. 2. He must be a good chemist in "botany. 

Sec. 3. He must be a chemist in mineral, earth 
and water. 

Sec. 4. He must understand how to gather all 
the raw material for all the medicines he may want 
to use in our practice. 

Sec. 5. He must then know how to manufacture 
them on scientific painciples without any mistake. 

Sec. 6. He must manufacture each article separ- 
ate and distinct for each and every respective disease 
in human life. 

Sec. 7. He can then practice under instruction 
and if he finds a case that he don't understand he 
must at once report to the nearest headquarters. 

Sec. 8. Such student or students, are not allow- 



9i 

ed to change [their medicines at all, in any case~ 

Sec. 9. If they find a case they do not understand 
perfectly, they must report at once, without any 
experimenting at all. 

Sec. 10. They must know what is the matter 
and what to give, and what to do first, last and aU 
the time, or stop at once and report such case or 
cases to headquarters. 

Sec. 11. Every student must understand Mid- 
wifery perfectly. 

Sec. 12. All students must thoroughly under- 
stand surgery so as to see whether it is necessary 
for an operation or not, and how if necessary with- 
out any mistake at alL 

Sec. 13. No mistake or experiments are allowed,, 
they must report such to the nearest headquarters 
at once without any delay. 

To the Senate and House of Representatives of 
the United States, and to the people of the District 
of Columbia. 

About sixty per cent of the people of the Dis- 
trict of Columbia, had no Doctor during the "Grippe" 
epidemic of 1890 but had the " Grippe" all the 
same. 

They used Nature's own remedies, the Botanical; 
not a case was lost out of something like sixty per 
cent. Eighteen per cent were attended directly and 



92 

indirectly by the Botanical Doctors, having over 
nine hundred cases of " Grippe " not a case was 
lost of the eighteen per cent; something like twenty- 
two per cent were attended by the Allopathic and 
Homeopathic Doctors, and they have lost over five 
hundred cases ; the Allopathic lost more than the 
Homeopathic , Doctors did during the La Grippe 
season. 

Some people in all three classes resorted to their 
own judgment and went to the drug stores and 
called for what they thought was the best for La 
Grippe which they had a perfect right to do, a;id 
none was lost. 

The result was about the same for years pa.-t <>t 
Dyphtheria, Scarlet Fever and other diseases as it 
was this year of La Grippe in favor of the Botani- 
cal. 

So much for the scientific mechanism of Chemis- 
try in- Botany in Washington City, D. C. 

In care of Dr. W. M. Starr, 
Pres. of the Botanical Sdiool of Medicine, 

709 G St., X. W.. 
By request. Washington, i). C- 



A Protest Against Medical Monopoly* 



To the Senate and House of Representatives, in Con- 
gress Assembled.: 

We, the. Botanical Schools of Medicine, de-ire to 



93 

•enter our protest against Senate bills 2352 and 

2396, Fifty-first Congress, first session, and all 
similar bills which may be introduced. 

The bills referred to, announce it as their pur- 
pose to regulate the practice of medicine in the Dis- 
trict of Columbia, by placing in the hands of a board 
■of medical men the power to limit at will the prac- 
tice of medicine to such persons as this board may 
-chouse to grant permits or licenses to. They are 
•clearly in the interest of certain classes of medical 
men, granting them special privileges in violation 
•of the Constitutional rights of other physicians and 
of all other citizens. 

There are quite a number of sects in medicine, 
.as there are in religion. 

The bills named, provide for giving two sects, 
■" the allopathic and homeopathic," the power to mo- 
nopolize the practice of medicine and surgery in this 
District, to the exclusion of all other sects, and to 
place in their hands the power to enforce their spe- 
cial class privilege by fines and imprisonment 
again- 1 members of the medical profession who be- 
long to schools not represented in the board of ex- 
aminers. 

The disciples of the renowned Swiss empyric, 
■" Paracelsus," who, in 1625, burned the works of 
Galen, the Botanist, and founded a new medical 
sect on the .allopathic dogma of "contra rid contra- 



94 

Tiusmirantur" — in plain English, "the way to cure 
one disease is to create another of a different sort" 
— and that, therefore, the most powerful poisons 
are the most potent medicines, is not sound in the- 
ory nor successful in practice, and is therefor false 
and dangerous, and is so heretical as to deserve 
no quarter from good orthodox doctors — if this sect, 
founded 350 years ago, and which, by virtue 
of age and numbers, now assumes to be regular, 
i. e., orthodox, could sustain such a claim, then 
there would be no need of statutes to protect them 
against the competitions of the physicians of other 
sects. But if such claim could be sustained it 
would still be a violation of the genius of our insti- 
tutions to pass laws giving them a monopoly. 

The people have a perfect right to employ quacks 
if they want to do so, or to take patent medicines, 
or to rely on nature, refusing to be dosed by any- 
body, But this claim of perfection is not set up by 
any intelligent allopathic physicians, and if it were 
it woidd be not only false but ridiculous. Instead 
of claiming perfection the leading men of that school 
are on record as having pronounced its theories 
false, and its practice empyrical and dangerous, 

We quote briefly from some of the most renown- 
ed and honored allopathic physicians of this country 
and Europe, opinions of their own creed and sys- 
tem of practice. 






95 

• Dr. Joseph Bigelow, ex-president of the Massa- 
chusetts Medical Society, says : 

" Medicine is an ineffectual speculation. 1 sin- 
cerely believe that the unbiased opinion of most 
medical men of sound judgment is that the amount 
of deaths and disasters in the world would be less 
than it now is if left to itself." 

Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes says : 

" It would be better for men, but worse for the 
fishes, if all medicines were poured into the sea." 

Professor Gregory, of Edinburgh College, says : 

" Ninety-nine out of every hundred so-called 
medical foots are medical lies." 

Dr. Magendie says : 

" Medicine is a great humbug." 

Dr. Alexander M. Ross, F. R. S., of London, 
says : 

" The medical practice of to-day has no more 
foundation in science, in philosophy, or in common 
sense, than it had one hundred years ago. It is 
still based on conjecture." 

Dr. Willard Parker, of Xew York, says : 

" As we place more confidence in nature, and 
less in medicines, mortality diminishes." 

Dr. Alonzo Clark, of Xew York, says: 

" Physicians hurry thousands to their graves who 
would have recovered, if left to nature." 

Sir Astley Cooper, says: 



" The system of medidbe is founded on conjec- 
ture, and improved by murder." 

Dr. John Mason Good, F. R. S., of London, says :. 

u The science of medicine is a meaningless jar- 
gon." 

Dr. Evans, F. R. S., of London, say : 

"The so-called science of medicine has neither 
philosophy nor common sense to commend it to- 
confidence." 

Dr. Benjamin Rush, one of the signers of the- 
Declaration of Independence, said : 

" The physician is like a blind man striking at 
random. If he hits the disease he kills it, but he- 
is full as likely to hit the patient, and kill it. We 
(physicians) have multiplied diseases, and increased 
their mortality." 

He further said: "The conferring of exclusive 
privileges upon bodies of physicians, and forbid- 
ding men of equal talents under penalties from 
practicing medicine, are inquisitions, however sanc- 
tioned by ancient charters, and names serving as 
the Bastiles of our science." 

Hundreds of similar quotations could be given,- 
but surely these are sufficient. When this Repub- 
lic was founded there were many religious sects in. 
the country, and the framers of the Constitution, 
provided specifically against religious monopoly .. 
But there was then but one medical sect, hence no 



97 

person thought of any necessity For providing speci- 
fically against medical monopoly. Had there been 
at that time, as there are now, rival medical sects, 
it is probable that such provision would have been 
suggested, and adopted, for certainly a person has 
as clear a right to choose a physician for his body 
as for his soul, and any infringement of this right 
in either case is a violation of his right to " life, 
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." We insist, 
therefore, that all laws restricting the practice of 
medicine to any school, or any number of schools, 
is unconstitutional, despotic, and wrong. 

As already stated, but one medical sect existed 
when this Government was founded, but the liber- 
alizing influence of freedom on this continent gave 
breadth and depth to thought and investigation in 
all departments of life. Men of vigorous minds 
sought, discovered, and proclaimed new truths in 
medicine and new remedies for disease. They were 
denounced by the regular profession as pretenders 
and quacks. But this being a free country, they 
appealed to the people, resting the claims of their 
discoveries upon their merits. The people divided 
and the old and new sects flourished side by side 
under the protecting branches of the tree of liberty. 
This was right. Under this system medicine has 
made more substantial progress during the last cen- 
tury than it had in 2,000 years before. This fact 



"98 

establishes the superiority of the American system 
of free competition over that of professional monop- 
oly. 

It is an historic fact with which all intelligent 
people are familiar, that when one sect enjoys a 
monopoly of religious privileges there is no religi- 
ous progress, and that when one medical sect enjoys 
a monopoly of the practice of medicine, progress in 
the art of healing is not perceptible; and, that in 
both these fields of human inquiry progress is de- 
pendent upon the freedom of men of thought and 
research to present their latest theories and discov- 
eries to the people, and submit them to the popular 
verdict. 

We therefore ask that the American system of 
free competition in medicine, as in religion, be con- 
tinued in force, and that no legislation be had which 
shall limit the freedom of the people. 

DR. W. M. STARR, Pres't, 

Botanical Schools of Medicine. 



M. D'S. 



The law which demands that an M. D. must be 
called in to see any sick person, old or young, 
to secure a certificate of burial in case of death, is 



09 

an inhuman outrage. It is to compel people to hire 
ti do.tor of only one school whether they want them 
or not. It means to force and impose 

these M. D's. on the people without their free will 
or consent. This is an outrage and tyrants have 
often suffered death for less tyranical acts than such 
a law imposes upon the people. Great consolation 
for the 800 mothers in Washington, in the two 
months of 1890, to know from the M. Ds. that 
their children died from the use of milk. Botanic 
Doctors never give such medicines as will cause 
a child to die from the use of milk, and why should 
they not be allowed to give a certificate of burial in 
case one of their patients should happen to die. 
Botanic Doctors are entirely opposed to all force 
measures or sectarian laws. Botanic Doctors claim 
that three quarters of the whole people of the United 
States are with them on this issue. 



The following deaths occuring from zymotic 
diseases of the miasmetic order, called in the health 
officers' reports : measles, scarlet fever, rotheln, 
rubeola, erysipelas, eczema, pemphigus, typhoid 
fever, typho-malarial fever, congestive fever, inter- 
mittent fever, remittent fever, malarial fever, 



100 

catarrhal fever, diphtheria, croup, tonsillitis, whoop- 
ing cough, mumps, pyaemia, septicaemia, furunculo- 
sis, cholera morbus, cholera infantum, dysentery 
diarrhoea, entero-colitis ; 

For year ending, 1886, - 776 

" " " 1887, - - T 829 

« « " 1888, - - - 937 

" " " 1889, - - - 1,093 



3,635 
I claim that the above named diseases are all 

cureable, and that not one of said deaths would 

have occured under my treatment. 

Then why shall the Botanical profession not be 

equally protected in their rights under all laws with 

other medical professions ? 



One feature in Dr. Starr's life is that whenever 
lie meets a farmer coming to the city with his 
wagen load of produce, he invarably takes his hat 
off to bid him a cordial welcome. He never was 
known to tip his hat to any other class except the 
farmer. 



101 

In concluding I will refer to one historical fact. 
Before the Botanical Library was burnt by a "King 
of Terror" in 1625, there was no monopoly in 
medicine whatsoever and they were composed of 
Botanical preparations, gathered fresh from the 
fields where the oats, beans and barley grew by the 
skilful farmers and their wives. 

Ever since the use of Botanical medicines were 
forced out of general use by this cruel edict, and 
the dogma proclaimed that poisons were the proper 
medicines to be used, the death rate has increased. 
Up to that time men were strong and lived long, 
since that time they have become weaker, and mor- 
tality has increased rapidly until in 1891, it has 
fallen to the low rate of sixteen years and ten 
months. If this poison dogma had been univer- 
sally accepted by the people, the mortality would 
have been much greater, but thank God, the Far- 
monians and Botanians have always objected to 
this haphazard and poisonous system of practice, 
and in defiance of all Force bills which have been 
passed, or may be passed in the future, seventy-five 
per cent of the common people of America have re- 
fused and still refuse to accept it, and cling to Bo- 
tanical remedies. 



102 

After the burning of the Botanical Library in 
1625, so much attached were the women of that 
day to their Botanical Medicines, that a committee 
of one hundred ladies were selected to go to the 
King and beg that the names of certain medi- 
cal herbs sho- Id be placed in the Bible. When 
asked why these names should be inserted in the 
Bible, the King was told that it was because 
the Bible would never be destroyed, and they want- 
ed the names preserved so they would not be 
lost. The King granted their request, and the 
names of the herbs can be found in the Bible to- 
day. The ladies on retiring from the presence of 
the King rejoiced that they had a balm hidden in 
the leaf. 

Dr. William M. Starr, 
Pres. of the Botanical Ass'n 

of the U. S. A. 



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